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LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


BIOGKAPHY 


ELISHA  W&m  KANE. 


BY 


WILLIAM   ELDER 


PHILADELPHIA: 
CHILDS   &   PETERSON,  602  ARCH   STREET. 

LONDON: 
TRUBNER  &  CO.,  60  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 

1858. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1857,  by 
CHILDS  &  PETERSON, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern  District  of 
Pennsylvania. 


STEREOTYPED   BY   L.  JOHNSON   &  CO. 

PHILADELPHIA. 
PRINTED  BY  DEACON  4  PETEKSON. 


TO  THE  EEADEE. 


THIS  book  was  announced  as  forthcoming  in  May  last, 
and  was  expected  by  the  subscribers  for  over  thirty  thou 
sand  copies  about  midsummer ;  but,  notwithstanding  a  per 
sistency  of  effort  which  threatened  to  exhaust  every  thing 
in  me  except  my  patience  and  hope,  I  was  not  able  to 
secure  the  narrative  material  for  the  third  chapter  until 
the  end  of  August;  and  that  which  was  required  for  all 
after  the  eighth  was  delayed  till  the  7th  of  November. 

I  have  worked  hard,  under  pressure  of  a  clamorous  im 
patience  for  the  publication.  The  toil  which  does  not 
appear  ^in  these  pages,  I  think,  amounts  to  ten  times  more 
than  the  reader  will  discover, — unless  he  has  some  time 
written  a  biography  out  of  the  raw  material.  I  have  not 
been  unpunctual.  Moreover,  I  have  had  so  very,  very  little 
help  that  my  only  temptation  to  affect  thankfulness  would 
be  a  division  of  the  responsibility,  which,  in  the  strictest 
justice  to  all  parties,  rests  exclusively  upon  myself. 

My  aim  was  not  to  write  a  review  of  Dr.  Kane's  writings, 
but  a  memoir  of  the  man,  which  might  serve  to  make  his 
readers  personally  acquainted  with  him.  I  would  do  this, 
or  I  would  do  nothing ;  and,  working  steadily  to  this  end, 
I  think  I  have  not  diluted  my  narrative  with  any  thing 


TO    THE    READER. 


except  my  own  personality, — for  which  I  respectfully  refuse 
to  offer  either  justification  or  apology. 

It  will  be  observed  how  largely,  and  how  freely  too,  I  have 
quoted  from  Dr.  Kane's  private  letters  and  memoranda. 
Bless  the  memory  of  the  man  for  the  happiness  I  have  this 
day  in  declaring  that  I  have  not  been  obliged  to  suppress  a 
letter  or  a  line  for  the  sake  of  his  fame  !  I  struck  out  only 
one  word  in  all  my  quotations  from  his  manuscript,  and 
altered  one  in  the  report  of  him  by  a  correspondent ;  and 
these  only  because  they  would  have  been  misunderstood. 

May  I  not  well  be  glad  that  nothing  has  discovered  itself, 
in  all  this  scrutiny  of  the  character  and  conduct  of  my  sub 
ject,  which  could  affect  my  regard  for  him,  or  leave  me  with 
a  shade  of  doubt  or  discomfort  after  all  I  have  said  of  him  ? 

The  "Obsequies  of  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,"  appended  to 
the  biography  proper,  and  making  so  large  a  part  of  the 
volume's  value,  were  prepared  by  the  Honorable  Joseph  R. 
Chandler,  of  this  city.  His  name  is  a  sufficient  voucher  for 
their  worth. 

W.  E. 

PHILADELPHIA,  December  14,  1857. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MM 

GENEALOGY — The  Maternal  Line  through  a  Century — Birth — Baptism — 
Childhood — Hardihood — Pugilism  and  Polar  Practice — School-Cramps 
— Juvenile  Polytechnics — Drift  of  Nature  under  Direction  of  Provi 
dence...  13 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Boy's  Battle  with  the  Books — His  Studies  at  Play — Reconciliation  on 
his  own  Terms,  and  at  Work  with  a  Will — His  Collegiate  Course — Civil 
Engineering — System  Suiting  the  Subject — Dangerous  Illness — Self- 
Culture,  its  Limits  and  its  Authorities — Life  in  a  New  Light — The  Study 
of  Medicine — A  Student  at  Blockley — Character  at  Twenty-One — Celi 
bacy,  and  a  Reason  for  it 29 

CHAPTER  III. 

Senior  Physician  at  Blockley — Duties  and  Studies — Inaugural  Thesis — 
Verdict  of  the  Profession — Physiological  Exploration,  Methodology, 
Apparatus,  Certitude — Unrest,  Cause  and  Cure — Assistant  Surgeon 
United  States  Navy— Better  Health— China  Mission — First  Voyage— 
"As  it  is  written" — Studies  Aboard — Around  Bombay — Ceylon  — 

Tropic  Life 44 

5 


6  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PAGE 

The  Forethought  of  Travel — Luzon— The  Negritos — A  Grand  Ramble — 
A  Vagrant  Souvenir — Volcano  of  Tael,  Description  and  History — De 
scent  of  the  Crater — An  Indignant  Idol — Skirmish  with  the  Pygmies— 
The  "  Treaty  Fortnight" — Ki-ying  and  Gushing— Antipodal  Gentle 
men — A  Dinner — Celestial  Health-Drinking — Attache's — Diplomatic 
Dance — Disappointment 57 

CHAPTER  V. 

Testimony  of  the  Secretary  and  Chaplain  of  the  Mission — Professional 
Practice  in  China — Rice-Fever  Attack — Homeward — Borneo — Singa 
pore — Sumatra — Interior  India — Persia  and  Syria — The  Nile,  from 
the  Sea  to  Sennaar — Professor  Lepsius — Life  at  Thebes — Egyptology — 
Nilotic  Diluvium — Boat-Wreck — Skirmish  with  Bedouins — Attack  of 
the  Plague 74 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Statue  of  Memnon — The  Ascension,  Risk,  Escape — Greece  traversed 
afoot — Germany — Switzerland — Paris — Surgical  Practice  in  the  East 
—A  Letter— Italy— England— All  the  World  over— A  Winter  at  Home 
— Repugnance  to  the  "Service" — Waiting  Orders — Mis-sent — Coast  of 
Guinea — Dahomey — Pattern  of  a  King — Birthday  Ode — Prerogative 
Royal — Magnificence — The  Slave-Trade — Human  Sacrifice — The 
Coast-Fever—Sent  Home — The  Fleet-Surgeon's  Report 90 

CHAPTER  VII. 

A  Summer  of  Suffering — Opportunity  lost — The  Last  Chance  seized — 
Despatched  to  Mexico — Shipwreck  in  the  Gulf — The  Spy-Company — 
Affair  at  Nopaluca — Rescue  of  his  Prisoners — Hard  Fighting  and 
Rough  Surgery — Wounded — Typhus  Fever — Newspaper  History — 
Surfeit  of  Patriotism — Irksomeness  of  the  Livery — Charges  against  Do- 
mingues — The  Horse-Claim — How  it  was  proved,  and  what  it  proved-— 
jratitude  of  his  Prisoners 108 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAOB 

Colonel  Child's  Letter— Compliment  to  General  Gaona— His  Reply—"  The 
Flag  of  Freedom" — Complimentary  Sword — Dr.  Kane's  Acceptance — 
Colonel  Gaona's  Wound — Dr.  Kane's  Prisoners — Palasios  shot — Domin- 
gues  missed — Hand-to-hand  Conflict — Loss  and  Gain  upon  "Relic" — 
To  Head-Quarters — Invalided — Homeward  — Despondency — Bureau- 
Favor  refracted — Tread-Mill  Regime — To  the  Mediterranean — Lock 
jaw — Dying  Experience — Recuperation — Coast-Survey — An  Interlude 
— Lady  Franklin's  Appeal — American  Response — Dr.  Kane  volunteers 
— Ambition's  Last  Gasp — Amusement  and  other  Refreshments — Off  to 
the  Arctic 127 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Franklin's  Voyages — Search-Expeditions — United  States  Grinnell  Expe 
dition — Lieutenant  De  Haven — Arctic  Rose-Plucking — The  Captain's 
Doubts — The  Doctor's  Decision — The  Personal  Narrative — Horrors  of 
Authorship — Dietetics  and  Drugs — Public  Lecturing — Expeditions  of 
1852 — Estimate  of  Buttons — Second  Voyage  postponed — Little  Willie 
— In  Memoriam — Grinnell  Land — Arrowsmith  and  the  Admiralty — 
Adjourned  Justice — Dr.  Kane  and  Colonel  Force — Comity  and  Equity.  146 

CHAPTER  X.  . 

Mr.  Kennedy's  Alacrity— Sympathy  of  the  Savans— Confidence  strength 
ened — Exciting  the  Officials — Hopes  on  a  See-saw — Drudgery  of  Boring 
— Kennedy  Channel — Cash  Contributions — Lecturing-Business — Mr. 
Peabody — Deficiencies  of  Outfit — Laborious  Preparations — Patriotic 
Enthusiasm — The  Honors  in  Danger — Race  against  Time — Admiralty 
Chart — A  Time  to  be  Sick — Daily  Prayers — Christian  Heroism — Spe 
cial  Providence — Worship  among  the  Hummocks — Vindication  of  Faith 
—"How  readest  thou ?" — Saving  Faith 166 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Motives  and  Objects — Declaration  in  extremis — Working  up  the  Coast  of 
Greenland— Good-bye — A  Father's  Testimony— Franklin's  Chances— 


8  CONTENTS. 

MM 

Refuge  with  the  Natives — Supporting  Authorities — Sir  R.  Murchison — 
The  Brave  trust  the  Brave — Contributions  to  Science — Inedited  Manu 
scripts — The  Open  Sea — Logical  Demonstration — The  Discovery — The 
Last  Throw — William  Morton — Facts  and  Theories — Lieutenant  Maury 
— Kane's  Official  Report — British  Achievements — Results  of  Explora 
tion — Washington  Land — Within  the  Polar  Ice-Ring , 187 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Natural  Sciences — Glaciology — Relief-Expedition — Captain  Hart- 
stene — Dr.  John  K.  Kane — The  Knight  and  his  Squire — The  Three 
Captains — Authorship  again — Pains  and  Penalties — Author  and  Pub 
lishers —  The  Unwritten  Book — Engravings — Mr.  Hamilton — Dr. 
Kane's  Drawings — Artistic  Skill — Facility  and  Fidelity — Congres 
sional  Subscription — Popular  and  Public  Patronage — The  Author's 
Involvement  —  The  Secretary's  Commendation  —  Testimonials  and 
Medals 209 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Kane's  Sea — The  Chart — Summary  of  Operations — Last  Will — Voyage 
to  England — Hoping  against  Hope — Reception  in  London — Last  Letter 
— Disease  of  the  Heart— Voyage  to  St.  Thomas — On  his  Way  to  Cuba 
— Attack  of  Paralysis — At  Havana — Longing  for  Home — Last  Scene 
of  all — He  sleepeth — Interpretation — Church  Relations — Free-Masonry 
— The  Obsequies — Legislative  Resolutions — Learned  Societies  — 
English  Testimonial 229 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Personal  Description — Social  Bearing — Spirit-Power — Portraits — Hyper 
trophy — Kindness  for  Animals — Gun-Murder — Dog-People — Man  and 
Beast — Godfrey — North  British  Review — Withdrawing  Party — Man 
ners  and  Customs — Toodla-mik — Tastes  and  Antipathies— Novels  and 
Plays — Prose-Poetry — Mental  Method — Medical  Skepticism — Benefits 
of  the  Study — Governing-Power— The  Outside  Passage — Routine  and 
Organization — Esquimaux  Allies — Fondness  for  Children — Justice  to 
Subordinates— All  else  submitted— The  End...  ..  249 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  FROM  DR.  HAYES. 

PACK 

Dr.  Kane's  Plan  of  Search — Adventures  of  the  DepStnParty — Return  of 
Part  of  them — Starting  of  the  Relief-Party — Inadequate  Appliances — 
Special  Providence — Their  Return — Death  of  Baker  and  Schubert — 
Dr.  Kane's  Sickness — Want  of  Dogs — Appearance  of  Esquimaux — An 
Exchange  effected — Breaking  down 269 

LETTER  FROM  AMOS  BONSALL. 

Early  Acquaintance  with  Dr.  Kane — Volunteering  for  the  Expedition — 
Character  of  the  Sailors— Dr.  Kane's  alleged  Cruelty  to  his  Men— His 
Leniency — His  Self-Denial  and  Kindness  to  the  Sick — Death  of  Jeffer 
son  T.  Baker  and  Pierre  Schubert— Character  of  Baker...,  ..  273 


LETTER  FROM  HENRY  GOODFELLOW. 

Dr.  Kane's  Sea-Sickness— His  Habits  on  Board— Failing  Health— The 
Rescue-Party — A  Bad  Restorative — Government  of  the  Crew — Allow 
ance  of  Food — Dr.  Kane's  Abhorrence  of  Corporal  Punishment — His 
Attention  to  the  Sick — His  Spirit  of  Scientific  Inquiry — His  Social 
Demeanor  and  Conversation — Exercise — Dietetics...  276 


REPORT  OF  OBSEQUIES. 

Introductory  Remarks 287 

Proceedings  of  City  Councils  of  Philadelphia 288 

Mr.  Cuyler's  Remarks  and  Resolutions 288 

Message  of  Mayor  Vaux 289 

Remarks  of  Mr.  Perkins 290 

Resolutions  offered  by  Messrs.  Holman  and  Henry 290 

Meeting  of  Citizens 291 

Mayor  Vaux's  Remarks...  291 


10  CONTENTS. 


Remarks  of  Hon.  William  B.  Reed 292 

Major  Biddle's  Speech 294 

Professor  Frazer's  Address 296 

Mr.  Chandler's  Speech 2S7 

Remarks  of  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman 29^ 

Corn  Exchange 2" 

Committee's  Resolutions 300 

Remarks  of  Mr.  Busby 30° 

Proceedings  at  Havana 302 

Communication  from  the  Captain-General 302 

Resolutions  adopted  at  the  Meeting  of  American  Citizens 303 

Remarks  of  Don  Jose  J.  de  Echavarria 304 

Response  of  Consul  Blythe 305 

Ceremonies  at  New  Orleans 306 

Ceremonies  at  Louisville,  Ky 307 

Programme  for  Reception  of  Remains 308 

Ceremonies  at  Cincinnati 310 

Programme 310 

Relatives  of  the  Deceased :  Colonel  T.  L.  Kane,  Robert  P.  Kane, 

John  K.  Kane;  William  Morton 313 

Reception  of  Remains  by  the  Cincinnati  Committee 315 

Remarks  of  Mr.  Monroe,  on  behalf  of  the  Louisville  and  New  Al 
bany  Committees 315 

Remarks  of  Mr.  Anderson  in  reply 317 

The  Coffin 319 

The  Procession 320 

Ceremonies  at  Columbus 320 

Remarks  of  Mr.  Anderson,  on  behalf  of  the  Cincinnati  Committee.  322 

Religious  Exercisesat  the  Capitol 327 

Prayer  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Steele 327 

Substance  of  a  Discourse  by  Rev.  James  Hoge,  D.D 329 

Concluding  Prayers  and  Benediction 336 

Order  of  Procession  to  Railroad-Station 338 

Ceremonies  at  Baltimore 339 

Crossing  the  Ohio 339 

Disappointment  at  Wheeling 341 

Crossing  the  Mountains 341 


CONTENTS.  11 


PAGE 

Keception  of  the  Kemains  by  the  Baltimore  Committee 341 

Arrival  at  Baltimore 342 

The  Procession 343 

Appearance  of  the  City  while  the  Remains  were  passing  through  it  345 

Meeting  of  the  Maryland  Institute 346 

Remarks  of  Mayor  Swann 346 

Resolutions 348 

Remarks  of  William  H.  Young 349 

Remarks  of  Hon.  John  P.  Kennedy 350 

Proceedings  of  the  Companions  of  Dr.  Kane  at  Philadelphia 358 

Deputations  from  New  York  and  other  Cities 360 

Arrival  of  the  Remains  at  Philadelphia 361 

Programme  of  Procession  to  Independence  Hall 362 

Remarks  of  Messrs.  Dukehart,  Chandler,  and  Parry 363 

The  Funeral  Procession 365 

Exercises  in  the  Church 368 

Invocation,  by  Rev.  Charles  Wadsworth,  D.D 368 

Funeral  Discourse,  by  Rev.  Charles  W.  Shields 370 

Prayer,  by  Rev.  Dr.Boardman 380 

Conclusion  of  Exercises 381 

Remarks  and  Acknowledgments  of  Committee 382 

Proposed  Erection  of  a  Monument  to  Dr.  Kane 386 


MASONIC  OBSEQUIES. 

Resolutions  of  Arcana  Lodge,  of  New  York 391 

Meeting  of  Lodge  of  Sorrow ft..  392 

Ode  by  Brother  Herring 393 

Address  by  Grand  Master  John  L.  Lewis,  Jr 393 

Letters  to  the  Masonic  Grand  Lodge  of  New  York 395 

Commodore  Stewart,  U.S.N 396 

Commodore  Perry,  U.S.N 396 

Commodore  Read,  U.S.N 396 

Lieutenant  Maury,  U.S.N 397 

Major-General  John  E.  Wool,  U.S.A...  ..  397 


12  CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

Honorable  Judge  Kane • 397 

Honorable  Edward  Everett 308 

C.  Edwards  Lester,  Esq 398 

Washington  Irving,  Esq 398 

Fits-Greene  Halleck,  Esq 399 

J.  D.  Evans,  P.G.  M.  of  Grand  Lodge  of  New  York 399 

R.   L.   Schoonmaker,  Grand  Chaplain  of  Grand  Lodge  of  New 

York,  &c.  &c 399 

Hymn,  by  Brother  George  P.  Morris 403 

Eulogy,  by  Grand  Master  Honorable  E.  W.  Andrews 404 


ELISHA  KENT  KANE, 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENEALOGY — THE    MATERNAL  LINE  THROU^Hl_g£<ff  URY — BIRTH — 

^' '  "ir  -  ^>-"^ 

BAPTISM — CHILDHOOD — HARDIHOOD — PUGILISM  AND  POLAR  PRAC 
TICE — SCHOOL-CRAMPS — JUVENILE  POLYTECHNICS — DRIJFT  OP  NA 
TURE  UNDER  DIRECTION  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

ELISHA  KENT  KANE  derived  his  blood  from  the  com 
mon  source,  immediately  through  the  Kanes  and  Van 
Rensselaers  of  New  York,  and  the  Grays  and  Leipers 
of  Pennsylvania. 

His  family,  in  all  branches,  dates  American  for  more 
than  a  century.  The  Kane  blood  is  Irish,  the  Van  Rens- 
selaer  Low  Dutch,  the  Gray  English,  and  the  Leiper 
Scotch.  A  hundred  years  ago  his  male  ancestors  of  these 
names  were  respectively  Episcopalians,  Dutch  Reformed, 
Quakers,  and  Presbyterians. 

His  great-grandfather,  John  Kane,  who  came  from 
Ireland  about  the  year  1756,  married  Miss  Kent,  a 
daughter  of  the  Reverend  Elisha  Kent,  by  unbroken 
descent  and  dissent  a  Puritan  from  the  earliest  settle 
ment  of  Massachusetts.  His  other  great-grandmother, 

13 


14  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Gray,  varied  the  faith  of  the  family  with  all  that  was 
practically  best  and  most  beneficent  in  the  religion  of  the 
Moravians.  This  lady,  born  Martha  Ibbetson,  was  in 
London  in  1749,  under  the  tuition  of  an  apothecary-sur 
geon.  After  acquiring  so  much  of  his  art  as  qualified 
her  for  the  Lady-Bountiful  life  to  which  she  had  devoted 
herself,  she  emigrated  to  America.  A  year  after  her 
arrival  in  Philadelphia,  she  married  George  Gray,  of 
Gragrs  Ferry,  a  man  of  great  wealth,  a  liberal  gentleman, 
and  a  zealous  Whig.  He  was  born  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  but  at  the  earliest  period  of  the  Revo 
lution  he  was  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Safety,  and  a 
representative  of  the  resistance  party  in  the  Assembly 
of  the  Province.  On  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  he  appears, 
as  a  delegate  from  the  county  of  Philadelphia,  at  "  a  meet 
ing  consisting  of  the  officers  and  privates  of  the  fifty- 
three  battalions  of  the  Associators  of  the  Colony  of 
Pennsylvania,  held  at  Lancaster,  to  choose  two  brigadier- 
generals  to  command  the  battalions  and  forces  of  the 
Province."  He  was,  of  course,  among  the  proscribed  by 
the  British  authorities. 

Mrs.  Gray  was  as  decided  a  patriot  as  her  husband, 
and  as  actively  devoted  to  the  service. 

During  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British 
forces,  the  sick  and  wounded  American  prisoners,  amount 
ing  at  one  time  to  nine  hundred  men,  were  confined  in 
the  old  Walnut  Street  prison.  They  were  not  treated 
as  prisoners  of  war,  but  as  rebels  under  arrest.  Hunger, 
thirst,  cold,  and  every  species  of  personal  abuse  and 


HIS    ANCESTORS.  15 


indignity  which  the  malignity  and  neglect  of  a  brutal 
subordinate  could  inflict  upon  them,  made  their  condition 
intolerable.  Mrs.  Gray  constantly  ministered  to  their 
wants, — enduring  the  insolence  and  overcoming  the  resist 
ance  of  their  keeper,  as  only  a  woman  of  high  character 
and  determined  zeal  could  meet  and  manage  such  diffi 
culties.  Food  and  medicines  were  supplied  at  her  own 
expense;  and  the  indispensable  services  of  the  surgeon 
and  nurse,  for  which  she  was  so  well  qualified,  were  i^n- 
dered  by  her  own  hands.  Her  courage  and  constancy 
overcame  all  resistance  that  could  be  ^Jfered  to  her  as  a 
benefactress.  The  baffled  officer  of  the  prison  charged 
her  with  being  a  spy,  and  she  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
city.  She  appealed  to  Lord  Howe :  he  withdrew  the 
order,  and  she  held  her  ground  till  the  British  evacuated 
the  city.  The  American  officers  who  had  witnessed  and 
experienced  her  generous  services  to  the  prisoners  acknow 
ledged  them  in  the  strongest  terms  of  gratitude  and  admi 
ration.*  Afterward,  when  the  tide  of  affairs  turned,  and 
British  prisoners  needed  her  aid,  it  was  given  as  freely 
and  effectually  as  she  had  before  ministered  to  the  suffer 
ings  of  her  own  party.  Through  all  these  labors  and 

*  "We,  the  subscribers,  officers  in  the  American  army,  now  prisoners 
in  Philadelphia,  think  it  our  duty  in  this  manner  to  testify  the  obliga 
tions  we  are  under,  and  the  respect  we  entertain  for  Mrs.  Martha  Gray, 
wife  of  George  Gray,  Esq.,  for  her  unwearied  attention  to  the  distresses 
of  the  numerous  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  confinement,  supplying 
them,  at  a  great  expense,  with  food  and  raiment,  constantly  visiting  and 
alleviating,  by  her  attention,  their  wretched  condition,  and  in  every  cir- 


16  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


trials  of  heroic  benevolence,  her  daughter  Elizabeth, 
afterward  Mrs.  Thomas  Leiper,  was  her  chief  assistant. 

Of  Thomas  Leiper,  it  is  recorded,  in  the  chronicles  of 
the  times,  that  he  was  1st  Sergeant  of  the  1st  City 
Troop  of  Cavalry  raised  for  the  Continental  service ;  that, 
as  treasurer  and  quartermaster,  he  carried  the  first  money 
from  Congress  to  General  Washington,  then  on  the 
Heights  of  Boston;  that  he  was  at  the  side  of  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  at  the  battles  of  Trenton,  Monmouth, 
Princeton,  New  Brunswick,  and  Brandy  wine,  and  in  the 
field  generally,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  War 
of  Independence. 

Warmly  attached  to  Eobert  Morris,  and  ardent  in  the 
support  of  his  financial  policy,  he  was  one  of  those 
patriots  who,  each  lending  one-third  of  his  personal 
estate  to  the  old  Bank  of  North  America,  enabled  him  to 
make  provision  for  the  march  of  the  army  to  Yorktown. 

cumstance  interesting  herself  in  their  behalf.  As  we  have  been  eye 
witnesses  to  the  above,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands. 

Philadelphia ,  January  29th,  1778. 

JOHN  HANNUM, 

Chester  Co.  Militia. 
PERS'N  FRAZER, 
Lieut.  Col.  5th  Penna.  Reyt. 

LUKE  MARBURY, 
Col.  4th  Bat.  Maryland  Militia 

W.  TALIAFERRO, 
Lieut.  Col.  4th  Virginia  Battal. 

0.  TOWLES, 
Major  6th  Virginia  Battal." 


HIS    ANCESTORS.  17 


When  the  two  great  parties  of  1799  were  forming,  he 
became  the  partisan,  as  he  had  long  been  the  personal 
friend,  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  In  Mr.  Jefferson's  letters  to  Mr. 
Leiper  there  is  a  remarkably  free  communication  of  opi 
nion  and  feeling  upon  all  the  political  questions,  foreign  and 
domestic,  of  the  time.  Their  correspondence  was  constant 
and  frequent  until  the  death  of  Leiper,  which  occurred  in 
1822.  He  was  long  President  of  the  Common  Council  of 
Philadelphia,  invariably  the  head  of  the  Democratic  elec 
toral  ticket  for  Pennsylvania,  and,  by  prerogative  of  his 
party  position,  the  chairman  of  all  the  large  Democratic 
meetings  and  conventions  of  the  city  and  State.  But  he 
never  held  any  office  of  emolument, — always  refusing 
such  appointments  for  himself  and  his  family.  At  the  end 
of  the  Revolutionary  War  he  and  his  troop  accepted,  for  all 
their  services  in  the  field,  a  letter  of  thanks  from  General 
Washington.  Their  money  pay  they  transferred  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospital,  to  found  a  lying-in  department, 
and,  by  this  noble  donation  of  their  toil-and-danger-earned 
funds,  that  charity  was  established. 

John  K.  Kane,  son  of  John  Kane  and  Miss  Yan  Rens- 
selaer  of  New  York,  was  a  member  of  the  Philadelphia 
bar  when  he  married  Jane  Leiper,  and  has  been  judge  of 
the  United  States  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District 
of  Pennsylvania  since  1845. 

Mrs.  Kane's  blood  descends  from  Martha  Ibbetson  and 
George  Gray,  through  Thomas  Leiper  and  their  daughter, 
and  ELISHA  was,  emphatically,  her  son. 


18  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


He  was  born  on  the  3d  of  February,  1820,  in  Walnut 
Street,  between  Seventh  and  Eighth,  Philadelphia. 

He  was  the  eldest  of  seven  children.  Three  brothers 
and  a  sister,  his  father  and  mother,  survive  him. 

He  was  baptized  in  his  infancy,  in  the  Presbyterian 
church,  of  which  his  parents  are  members,  ELISHA  KENT, 
after  the  old  Puritan  clergyman  of  Massachusetts. 

He  went  through  the  diseases  and  the  training  of  in 
fancy  vigorously,  having  the  clear  advantage  of  that 
energy  of  nerve  and  that  sort  of  twill  in  the  muscular 
texture  which  give  tight  little  fellows  more  size  than  they 
measure,  and  more  weight  than  they  weigh. 

His  frame  was  admirably  fitted  for  all  manner  of  ath 
letic  exercises,  and  his  impulses  kept  it  well  up  to  the 
limits  of  its  capabilities,  daring  and  doing  every  thing 
within  the  liberties  of  boy-life  with  an  intent  seriousness 
of  desperation  which  kept  domestic  rule  upon  the  stretch, 
and  threatened,  as  certainly  as  usual  with  boys  whose 
only  badness  is  their  boldness,  to  bring  down  everybody's 
gray  hairs  in  sorrow,  &c.  It  was  not  the  monkey  mirth- 
fulness  nor  the  unprincipled  recklessness  of  childhood 
that  he  was  chargeable  with,  but  something  more  of  pur 
pose  and  tenacity  in  exacting  deference  and  enforcing 
equity  than  is  usually  allowed  to  boyhood.  To  arbitrary 
authority  he  was  a  regular  little  rebel.  There  was  nothing 
of  passive  submission  in  his  temper,  and  he  did  not  over 
lay  it  with  the  little  hypocrisies  of  good-boy  policy.  He 
was  absolutely  fearless,  and,  withal,  given  to  indignation 
quite  up  to  his  own  measurement  of  wrongs  and  insults, 


PUGILISTIC    FEATS.  19 


and  he  had  a  pair  of  little  fists  that  worked  with  the 
steam-power  of  passion  in  the  administration  of  distribu 
tive  justice,  which  he  charged  himself  with  executing  at 
all  hazards.  In  right  of  primogeniture,  he  was  protector 
to  his  younger  brothers,  and  was  not  yet  nine  years 
old  when  he  assumed  the  office  with  all  its  duties  and 
dangers. 

At  school,  about  this  time,  with  a  brother  two  years 
younger  under  his  care,  the  master  ordered  his  protege  up 
for  punishment.  Elisha  sprang  from  his  seat,  and  inter 
posed  with  a  manner  which  had  rather  more  of  demand 
than  petition  in  it,  "Don't  whip  him,  he's  such  a  little 
fellow — whip  me."  The  master,  understanding  this  to 
be  mutiny,  which  really  was  intended  for  a  fair  compro 
mise,  answered,  "I'll  whip  you  too,  sir."  Strung  for  en 
durance,  the  sense  of  injustice  changed  his  mood  to 
defiance,  and  such  fight  as  he  was  able  to  make  quickly 
converted  the  discipline  into  a  fracas,  and  Elisha  left  the 
school  with  marks  that  required  explanation. 

When  he  was  ten  years  old,  four  or  five  neighbour 
boys,  all  bigger  than  himself,  who  had  climbed  upon  the 
roof  of  a  back  building  in  his  father's  yard,  were  amusing 
themselves  by  shooting  putty-wads  from  blow-guns  at  the 
girls  below.  Elisha,  attracted  to  the  spot  by  the  outcry 
of  the  injured  party,  promptly  undertook  the  defence, 
and  in  the  firm  tone  of  a  young  gentleman  offended, 
required  them  to  desist  and  leave  the  premises ;  but  he 
of  course,  was  instantly  answered  by  a  broadside  levelled 
at  himself.  Fired  at  the  outrage,  he  clutched  the  rain- 


20  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


spout,  and  climbed  like  a  young  tiger  to  the  roof,  and 
was  among  them  before  they  could  realize  the  practica 
bility  of  the  feat;  and  then  he  had  them,  on  terms  even 
enough  for  a  handsome  settlement  of  the  case.  The  roof 
was  steep  and  dangerous  to  his  cowed  antagonists,  but 
safe  to  his  better  balance  and  higher  courage,  and  they 
were  at  his  mercy ;  for  no  one  could  help  another,  and  he 
was  more  than  a  match  for  the  best  of  them,  in  a  posi 
tion  where  peril  of  a  terrible  tumble  was  among  the  risks 
of  resistance.  Forthwith  he  went  at  them  seriatim,  till, 
severally  and  singly,  he  had  cuffed  them  to  the  full  mea 
sure  of  their  respective  deservings.  But  not  satisfied 
with  inflicting  punishment,  he  exacted  penitence  also, 
and  he  proceeded  to  drag  each  of  them  in  turn  to  the 
edge  of  the  roof,  and,  holding  him  there,  demanded  an 
explicit  apology.  Before  he  had  finished  putting  the 
whole  party  through  this  last  form  of  purgation,  little 
Tom,  who  had  witnessed  the  performance  from  the  pave 
ment  below,  greatly  terrified  by  the  imminent  risk  of  a 
fall,  which  would  have  broken  a  neck  or  two  mayhap, 
called  out,  "Come  down,  Elisha!  oh,  'Lisha,  come  down!" 
Elisha  answered  the  appeal  in  the  spirit  of  the  engage 
ment,  "No,  Tom,  they  an't  done  apologizing  yet." 

He  took  no  "sauce"  from  anybody.  He  couldn't  under 
stand  why  he  should,  and  it  was  hartt  and  risky  to  make 
him  know  that  he  must;  for  he  was  equally  fertile  in 
expedients  and  bold  in  execution.  On  the  wharf,  one 
day,  when  he  was  not  yet  twelve  years  old,  an  insolent 
ruffian,  big  enough  and  wicked  enough  to  break  every 


EARLY    CHARACTERISTICS.  21 


bone  in  the  lad's  body,  aroused  his  wrath  by  an  intolera 
ble  piece  of  rudeness.  Resistance  and  redress  seemed 
impossible,  but  submission  was  completely  so.  He  saw 
his  opportunity, — a  rope  fixed  to  the  end  of  a  crane 
hung  within  his  reach,  and  the  ruffian  stood  fairly  in  the 
track  of  its  swing.  He  seized  it,  and  running  backward 
till  it  was  tightly  stretched,  he  made  a  bound  which  gave 
him  the  momentum  of  a  sling,  and  planted  his  knees  like 
a  shot  in  the  fellow's  face,  levelling  him  handsomely, 
and  with  a  spring  he  put  himself  under  the  protection  of 
the  bystanders,  who  had  witnessed  and  admired  the  per 
formance. 

So  Elisha  earned  the  character  of  a  bad  boy,  while  he 
was,  in  fact,  exercising  and  cultivating  the  spirit  of  a 
brave  one.  Goody-good  people,  very  naturally,  did  not 
understand  him  then, — they  do  now.  Elisha  never 
reformed :  he  just  persisted  until  he  performed  what  was 
in  him  to  do.  The  rills,  so  tortuous  and  turbulent  near 
the  springs,  rolled  themselves  into  a  river  in  time,  and 
regulated  their  rush  without  losing  it. 

It  is  said  that  "  education  forms  the  common  mind :" 
it  is  more  certain  that  "as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree's 
inclined."  This  boy,  at  least,  was  the  father  of  the  man. 
It  was  utterly  impossible  to  fashion  his  young  life  by  ve 
neering  it  with  the  proprieties  which  are  supposed  to 
shape  it  into  goodness.  He  may  not  have  known  what 
he  should  be  in  the  future,  but  he  knew  what  he  must  be 
in  the  present,  and  he,  happily,  did  not  limber  himself  by 
forced  compliances.  Difficult,  daring,  and  desperate  en- 


22  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


terprises,  not  only  useless,  but  recklessly  wild,  under  the 
common  standard  of  judgment,  worked  in  him  like  one 
possessed.  At  ten  years  of  age  he  studied  the  weather, 
watched  the  moon,  and  carefully  scanned  the  opportunities 
afforded  by  the  nights  for  scaling  fences,  clambering  over 
out-houses,  and  getting  into  the  tree-tops,  all  round  the 
square  that  was  overlooked  by  his  dormitory.  Wherever 
a  cat  could  go,  he  would;  and  escapes  from  the  sky-light, 
by  way  of  the  kitchen-roof  and  through  the  trap-door  to 
the  yard,  and  thence  abroad  to  enjoy  an  un watched  and 
unmolested  rambling,  clambering  and  tumbling,  afforded 
him  a  seriously  high-toned  delight.  He  took  nobody 
into  his  confidence  except  his  bed-fellow;  but  this  was 
voluntary  and  generous,  for  he  was  bent  upon  training 
him  for  similar  achievements.  One  instance  will  illus 
trate  : — 

The  back-building  was  two  stories  high,  the  front  three, 
and  the  houses  which  flanked  the  kitchen  were,  also, 
three  stories.  To  relieve  the  draft  of  the  kitchen  chim 
ney  from  the  eddy  of  the  buildings  which  embayed  it,  it 
was  carried  up  like  a  shaft  sixteen  feet  above  the  roof. 
There  it  stood  at  the  gable,  in  provokingly  tempting  alti 
tude,  and  the  point  that  concerned  our  little  hero  was, 
how  to  get  to  the  top  of  it? 

"How  should  he  get  to  the  top!  Bless  me,"  exclaims 
some  considerate  personage  of  correct  habits  and  cautious 
judgments,  "  why  should  he  ?"  Elisha  would  have  an 
swered  him,  "  I  must,  and  I  wonder  why  I  should  not  ?" 
Very  certainly  there  would  have  been  two  opinions  on 


POLAR    PRACTICE.  23 


the  matter,  if  any  wise  body  had  been  consulted.  But 
the  little  desperado  needed  no  advice.  The  thing  was  to 
be  done,  and  it  was  done.  It  required  some  engineering, 
but — it  was  all  the  better  for  that.  It  is  not  mere  muscle 
and  hardihood  that  will  carry  a  man  to  the  North  Pole. 
He  must  have  some  science  and  some  tackling  along  with 
him;  and  the  boy  that  is  practising  upon  a  chimney-top 
for  arctic  service,  must  put  his  wits  to  work,  quite  as 
.much  as  his  muscles  and  his  courage.  He  made  his  ob 
servations  and  his  calculations, — his  determination  was 
long  made.  The  preparations  were  perfected,  and  his 
younger  brother  taken  into  the  enterprise. 

When  all  in  the  house  were  asleep,  and  the  stars  gave 
just  light  enough  to  guide,  and  none  to  expose  the 'per 
formance,  with  prevention  and  punishment  among  the 
chances,  the  two  little  fellows  left  their  bed,  and  descended 
the  roof  of  the  front  building  till  they  dropped  them 
selves  upon  that  of  the  kitchen.  Here  the  clothes-line,  pro 
vidently  stowed  away  during  the  day  for  the  purpose,  was 
lying  ready  in  coil,  with  a  stone  securely  tied  at  one  end. 

"What  is  the  stone  for,  Elisha?" 

"Why,  you  see,  Tom,  the  stone  is  a  dipsey.  I  call  it 
a  dipsey,  (a  young  science  of  exploration,  and  a  nomen 
clature  to  match,  already,)  because  I'm  going  to  throw  it 
into  the  flue,  so  that  it  will  run  down  into  the  old  fur 
nace,  carrying  the  line  down  with  it,  and  then  I  can  slip 
down  and  fasten  it  there.  Now  for  a  heave.  The  chim 
ney-top  is  almost  too  high  for  me.  It  is  pretty  near 
twenty  feet,  I  should  think;  but  I'll  do  it." 


24  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Failures  to  reach  the  height,  then  failures  to  direct 
the  dip  of  the  falling  stone,  followed  in  long  succession; 
but  this  gave  practice,  and  practice  makes  perfect.  At 
last  one  throw  more  lucky  than  the  rest,  and  the  rumble 
in  the  chimney  and  the  run  of  the  line  announced  suc 
cess.  Down  through  the  trap-door  went  Elisha,  and, 
after  securing  the  end  at  the  furnace,  he  ascended  to  the 
roof  again,  and  was  ready.  But  stop  a  little, — the  chim 
ney  is  a  very  narrow  stack;  it  stands  outside  of  the. 
gable,  and  there  is  a  chance  that  the  climber  may  swing 
out  and  get  forty  or  fifty  feet  of  clear  air  between  him 
and  the  pavement  below.  This  must  be  cared  for;  and 
little  Tom  is  duly  instructed  and  planted  firmly,  with 
the  slack  of  the  rope  in  hand,  to  keep  Elisha  on  the 
right  side  of  the  chimney,  so  that  if  the  bricks  on  the 
edge  give  way  and  a  tumble  betide,  he  may  come  down 
all  safe  and  nice  upon  the  roof.  All  these  arrangements 
made,  and  the  contingencies  so  well  provided  for,  the 
rope  is  seized,  the  feet  planted  against  the  chimney,  and, 
hand  over  hand,  up  goes  the  aspirant,  till  the  top  is 
within  reach;  but  the  perch  is  not  so  easily  attained, 
even  when  the  full  height  of  the  stack  is  mastered.  One 
hand  on  a  top  brick  to  draw  himself  up  by  it,  and  it 
yields  in  its  loosened  bed!  That  won't  do.  With  a 
hard  strain  he  gets  his  elbow  over  the  edge,  and  so  much 
of  the  doubled  arm  within  for  a  good  broad  hold,  and 
then  daintily  and  carefully  wriggling  up  the  little  body, 
and  he's  up,  seated  on  the  top ! 

"  Oh,  Tom,  what  a  nice  place  this  is !     I'll  get  down 


POLAR    PRACTICE.  25 


into  the  flue  to  my  waist,  and  pull  you  up,  too.  Just 
make  a  loop  in  the  rope,  and  I'll  haul  you  in.  Don't  be 
afraid, — it  is  so  grand  up  here." 

But  the  strength  was  not  quite  equal  to  the  will ;  and 
Tom's  chance  had  to  be  surrendered. 

The  descent  was  about  as  dangerous,  though  not  quite 
as  difficult,  as  the  ascent.  And  then  all  that  remained 
was  to  hide  the  tracks,  which  required  another  descent 
to  the  basement,  a  thorough  washing  of  the  rope  to  re 
move  the  soot  of  the  chimney;  and  then,  as  the  business 
of  the  night  was  done,  to  bed  via  the  roof  and  sky 
light  again ;  and  a  bright,  happy  consciousness  on  awak 
ing  in  the  morning  that  he  Jiad  done  it. 

His  child  history  is  full  of  this  sort  of  incidents. 
Through  them  all  runs  the  one  character  of  physical 
hardihood,  and  steady  tense  endeavour  for  doing  every 
thing  that  seemed  difficult  of  accomplishment,  without 
other  aim,  or  any  aim  at  all,  beyond  the  mere  doing. 

It  might  be  only  the  impulse  which  lifts  the  lark  into 
the  clouds  to  sing  her  morning  hymn,  and  leads  the 
chamois  to  the  dizziest  heights  of  the  Alps,  away  above 
the  region  where  he  finds  his  food ;  or  it  might  be  a  ha 
bitude  providentially  induced  and  adjusted  for  the  after 
work  of  his  adventurous  life.  Opinions  upon  such  points 
as  these  are  not  always  reason ;  and  reason  itself  is  not 
quite  capable  of  a  solution.  Only  those  who  have  the 
like  feeling  will  rightly  understand  it,  and  explanation 
would  not  explain  it  to  any  one  else. 

From  his  eighth  or  ninth  till  his  thirteenth  year  he 


26  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


was  rather  an  unpromising  school-boy.  In  the  softened 
phrase  of  a  good  authority,  (the  family  physician,)  "  he 
manifested  no  extraordinary  love  of  learning."  His  mani 
festations  during  this  period  would  bear  a  still  severer 
judgment  under  the  standard  which  exacts  devotion  to 
school  studies.  He  really  disliked  the  lessons  systemati 
cally  imposed  upon  him ;  and  he  was  not  given  to  sub 
mission  or  compromise,  nor  the  least  inclined  to  the 
shabby  dishonesty  of  seeming  and  dodging.  He  never 
complied  when  he  did  not  consent,  and  it  was  an  heroic 
integrity,  unbecoming  his  age  of  course,  that  made  him 
a  refractory  boy  first  and  a  noble  man  afterward,  when 
earnestness  and  honesty  became  more  seasonable.  His 
teacher  put  the  class  into  a  jumble  of  classic  text-books. 
Elisha,  decided  by  his  relish  perhaps,  perhaps  by  his 
judgment  against  the  assortment,  announced  his  repug 
nance,  and  supported  it  by  delinquency  in  study  and 
deficiency  at  rehearsal.  He  thought  he  could  not,  and 
he  said  he  would  not,  conform.  What  was  that  to 
the  teacher  ?  The  system  was  all  right,  and  the  order 
had  the  warrant  of  the  authorities,  and  of  what  conse 
quence  was  it  that  it  was  only  not  right  for  the  pupil  ? 
Many  men  have  many  minds,  but  many  boys  must  have 
only  one.  The  teacher  told  him  that  he  would  rather 
have  him  leave  the  school  than  stay  out  of  his  class. 
The  next  day  the  dissenter  took  his  seat  in  his  place, 
opened  at  the  lesson,  put  his  finger  on  it,  and  closed  the 
book!  His  mother  heard  the  complaint  against  him, 
and  exhorted  him  to  obedience.  Elisha  loved  his  mother 


SCHOOL-CKAMPS.  27 


"with  his  whole  heart,  and  his  understanding  also;"  he 
went  through  a  struggle, — he  yielded.  For  one  week  he 
laboured  faithfully,  and  gained  great  credit  for  success. 
He  could  go  no  further ;  his  conclusion  was,  "  I  said  that 
I  would  not,  and  I  will  keep  my  promise.  Mother 
breaks  my  heart  about  it,  but  I  cannot  do  it." 

The  influence  of  his  example  was  not  good  for  the 
established  authority  of  the  system ;  the  hypocrisy  of 
apparent  submission  would  have  answered  better  for 
that;  and  accordingly,  his  schools  and  teachers  were 
frequently  changed,  although  he  conciliated  the  favour 
of  his  teachers  generally  by  his  readiness  in  learning 
whatever  of  his  tasks  he  was  inclined  to,  and  always  by 
his  gallantry,  fine  spirit,  and  truthfulness. 

The  mistake  was  all  theirs.  It  was  the  period  that 
nature  had  assigned  for  the  growth  of  his  body  and  the 
education  of  his  physical  energies.  His  instincts  and 
his  necessities,  as  well  as  their  resulting  tastes,  were  in 
just  rebellion,  and  it  was  well  that  he  was  not  a  sacri 
fice  to  the  authorities. 

In  other  and  happier  directions  he  was  assiduous  in 
his  own  proper  education.  About  this  time  he  collected  a 
cabinet  of  minerals  which  is  still  preserved,  and  exploded 
any  number  of  chemicals  in  the  out-house,  Vhere  he  tin 
kered  at  his  own  tuition  in  all  the  arts,  sciences,  and 
polytechnics  of  the  boy-system  of  self-culture.  His  stolen 
reading — all  boys  who  have  any  thing  in  them  steal  the 
reading  which  their  special  capacities  require — was 
Chemistry,  Kobinson  Crusoe,  and  the  Pilgrim's  Progress. 


28  ELISHA    KENT     KANE. 


He  was  getting  ready,  intentionally  or  unconsciously, 
for  the  studies,  discoveries,  and  achievements  of  his  after 
life. 

We  propose,  therefore,  to  modify  the  received  report 
of  his  school-boy  character,  and  put  it : — He  manifested 
no  extraordinary  love  for  learning  the  lessons  set  him 
by  his  teachers.  "Which  very  naturally  as  well  as 
justly  turns  the  point  of  the  judgment,  and  gives  it 
the  right  cutting  direction. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BOY^S  BATTLE  WITH  THE  BOOKS — HIS  STUDIES  AT  PLAY — 
RECONCILIATION  ON  HIS  OWN  TERMS,  AND  AT  WORK  WITH  A  WILL 
— HIS  COLLEGIATE  COURSE — CIVIL  ENGINEERING — SYSTEM  SUITING 

THE    SUBJECT DANGEROUS      ILLNESS — SELF-CULTURE,    ITS     LIMITS 

AND  ITS  AUTHORITIES — LIFE  IN  A  NEW  LIGHT — THE  STUDY  OF  MEDI 
CINE — A  STUDENT  AT  BLOCKLEY — CHARACTER  AT  TWENTY-ONE — 
CELIBACY,  AND  A  REASON  FOR  IT. 

THE  name  of  Elisha  K.  Kane  has  passed  into  history, 
the  history  of  science  and  heroic  adventure.  The  youth 
of  his  countrymen  desire  to  know  him  personally,  inti 
mately.  There  is  a  lesson  in  his  life  for  them.  Hero- 
worship  is  a  form  of  devotional  faith  which  may  or  may 
not  yield  its  best  fruits  to  the  worshipper :  the  spirit 
of  a  generous  emulation  must  work  in  him  to  produce 
them,  and  for  this  he  needs  the  directory  of  the  facts 
and  influences  which  grew  his  model  into  greatness. 

His  father,  a  scholar,  a  lawyer,  and  a  literateur, 
systematic  in  study,  and  keen  in  the  pursuit  of  all  use 
ful  and  elegant  attainments,  despaired  of  Elisha's  future 
when  the  lad  was  thirteen.  He  told  him  then,  that  he 
must  choose  between  labour  and  learning  promptly. 

29 


30  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Elisha  had  already  chosen  both,  and  both  together ;  but 
his  father  had  not  found  the  college  to  suit  him.  Here 
lay  the  whole  difference  between  them,  and  neither  of 
them  understood  it.  The  boy  had  not  a  vice  or  a  fault 
that  could  spoil  the  man ;  but  he  had  scarcely  an  incli 
nation  that  promised  success  in  the  life  designed  for 
him.  There  was  riding  at  break-neck  speed  to  be  done ; 
trees  and  rocks  to  climb;  pebbles  to  pick;  dogs  to  train; 
chemistry,  geology,  and  geography  to  explore,  with  his 
eyes  and  fingers  on  the  facts ;  sketching,  whittling,  and 
cobbling  to  do,  with  other  heroics  of  muscle  and  mind — 
all  mixed  in  a  medley  of  matter  and  system,  for  which 
there  was  no  promising  precedent,  and  no  prophecy  of 
good.  Withal,  he  was  constitutionally  averse  (he  was 
not  exactly  incapable  of  any  thing)  to  continuous  allotted 
labour — so  many  hours,  so  many  things  to  do. 

It  was  not  until  his  sixteenth  year  that  he  began  to 
feel  the  deficiencies  of  his  formal  education,  and  addressed 
himself  vigorously  to  the  work  of  repairing  them.  The 
interval  of  two  or  three  years  was  occupied  with  irregu 
lar  and  ineffective  efforts  to  prepare  himself  for  college. 
His  health  had  given  way,  he  was  ill  at  ease,  and  he 
was  on  bad  terms  with  his  stated  engagements. 

Boys'  sorrows  do  not  often  break  boys'  hearts ;  just  as 
the  crudities  which  they  cram  into  their  stomachs  do 
not  give  them  the  dyspepsia.  Ephemeral  despairs  and 
short  fits  of  indigestion  relieve  them  of  their  troubles  of 
both  kinds ;  for  they  are  not  very  susceptible  of  chronic 
complaints.  But  there  are  some  fourteen  year  olds, 


AT    WORK    WITH    A    WILL.  31 


who  have  character  enough  to  suffer  by  their  mental 
conflicts.  I  wish  Doctor  Kane  had  himself  charted 
these  first  encounters  of  his  with  the  hummocks  and 
icebergs  of  his  life- voyage.  It  would  serve,  I  think,  for 
guidance  in  education,  as  well  as  his  map  of  the  polar 
regions  answers  to  direct  geographical  adventure  and 
insure  its  success. 

But,  like  a  brave  fellow,  he  "  buckled  down  to  it,"  and 
made  such  progress  in  the  languages,  mathematics,  and 
drawing  as  made  him  ready  for  collegiate  study  in 
general  literature,  and  civil  engineering  especially,  which 
was  at  this  time  the  profession  of  his  own  choice. 

His  father  had  carried  him  to  New  Haven,  with  the 
intention  of  entering  him  at  Yale ;  but  there  he  dis 
covered  the  first  symptoms  of  that  heart  disease,  from 
which  he  was  never  afterward  entirely  free;  and  besides 
this,  Elisha  was  behind  in  certain  studies  which  the 
ritual  of  Yale  prescribed,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so 
much  in  advance  in  the  natural  sciences  of  the  college 
course,  that  a  good  year  must  be  sacrificed  if  he  entered 
under  the  rules;  and  his  father  very  wisely  decided 
against  Yale  under  these  conditions. 

The  University  of  Virginia  allows  the  pupil  an  elec 
tion  among  its  courses  of  study,  insisting  only  upon  a 
certain  basis  of  mathematics  and  classic  literature. 
Here  was  the  freedom  required;  and  Elisha,  in  his  six 
teenth  year,  glad  to  avail  himself  of  a  happy  exemption 
from  arbitrary  routine,  went  ardently  at  the  work  to 
which  he  was  appointed. 


32  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


Now  that  lie  was  in  athe  right  place  for  the  right 
man,"  he  knew  how  to  accommodate  himself  to  the 
method  of  necessary  rule,  and  was  well  inclined  to 
find  his  own  private  pathway  quietly  through  the 
fields  of  formal  study.  He  made  very  fair  headway 
in  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics.  What  he  got  he 
kept,  for  his  memory  in  all  things  had  the  special  cha 
racter  given  to  that  faculty  by  intenseness  of  impression. 
He  did  not  take  a  degree  here — he  was  not  a  candidate; 
but  the  learning  of  the  class-books  stuck  in  him  so  as  to 
stick  out  in  his  style,  almost  to  pedantry :  it  is  the  one 
fault  in  the  diction  of  his  first  Arctic  book.  He  had,  in 
fact,  a  wonderful  aptitude  for  language.  Whenever  he 
talked,  I  must  not  say  lazily,  but  less  intently,  he 
coined  words  most  incautiously,  but  with  a  facility 
wondrously  happy;  and  they  were  alive  with  Latin, 
Greek,  French,  and  grammar.  His  English  was  capital 
always,  when  he  was  thinking  closely ;  and  he  was  so 
nicely  critical  when  he  cared  to  be  so,  that  it  was 
evident  enough  an  eminent  linguist  had  been  spoiled  to 
make  up  a  man. 

During  his  year  and  a  half  at  the  Virginia  University 
he  devoted  himself  specially  to  the  study  of  the  natural 
sciences  under  Professor  Kogers,  and  of  mathematics 
under  Mr.  Bonnycastle.  Professor  Rogers  was  at  the 
time  engaged  upon  the  geology  of  the  Blue  Mountains. 
Young  Kane  seized  this  opportunity  for  exploring  nature 
and  resolving  her  mysteries  by  the  aid  of  science.  In 
this  engagement  chemistry  and  mineralogy,  with  a 


FAC-SIMILES     OF     GOLD     MEDALS, 
Presented  to  DR.  KANE  ly  the  Royal  Geographical  Zoc.'ety,  and  by  the  nritixh  Government. 


DANGEROUS    ILLNESS.  33 


margin  of  physical  geography,  offered  him  the  oppor 
tunity  for  pushing  the  studies  which  his  heart  was 
set  on;  and  it  gave  freedom  besides  for  indulging 
that  importunity  of  muscular  activity  which  possessed 
him. 

At  the  examinations  which  closed  the  terms  of  study- 
he  was  distinguished  for  his  progress  in  chemistry, 
mineralogy,  and  the  other  branches  which  make  up  an 
engineer's  qualifications.  How  well  he  profited  by  these 
studies  is  amply  attested  by  his  published  journals  of 
Arctic  exploration. 

Civil  engineering  was  the  drift  of  all  the  preparation 
he  was  now  making.  The  traveller  and  the  naturalist 
were  striving  in  him  so  strongly,  that  his  choice  of  a 
profession  was  determined  by  these  necessities  of  his 
nature.  But  his  studies,  pressed  with  too  much  ardor, 
were  interrupted  by  an  attack  of  acute  rheumatism,  of 
which  the  symptoms  had  shown  themselves  before  he 
left  home,  and  his  father  was  obliged  to  bring  him  away 
wrapped  up  in  a  blanket,  travelling  in  pain  and  diffi 
culty  till  he  reached  home,  where  he  was  long  danger 
ously  and  hopelessly  ill. 

We  are  now  at  a  resting  place,  and  cannot  do  better 
than  survey  the  ground  which  we  have  traversed;  for 
we  must  understand  the  boy  if  we  would  comprehend 
the  man. 

His  wa3  just  the  intellect  to  distinguish  between,  the 
formalities  and  the  essentials  of  an  education.  He  had 
no  time,  (let  this  excuse  all  that  was  wrong  in  his 


34:  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


refractoriness,)  he  had  no  relish,  (this  justifies  him  if  the 
laws  of  harmony  have  a  rightful  rule,)  for  things  not 
pertinent  or  helpful  to  his  purpose.  He  was  capable  of 
painting,  music,  or  belles-letters  authorship,  and  he  could 
have  beaten  De  Foe  in  his  own  line  of  writing.  For  all 
these  he  had  the  relish  that  goes  with  large  capability ; 
but,  like  mathematics  to  Wesley,  they  were  not  to  the 
purpose  of  his  life.  He  was  strongly  given  to  specula 
tive  inquiry,  but  not  at  all  disposed  to  convert  the 
impulse  into  a  mere  intellectual  observatory.  He  could 
not  lobby,  he  must  labor  productively,  through  life. 
Conventional  college  studies  fell  with  him  into  the  same 
category  with  the  esthetics  of  literature  and  philosophy ; 
they  were  judged  and  settled  by  their  serviceableness  to 
his  actual  uses.  So,  he  was  not  a  Bachelor,  nor  a  Master 
of  Arts,  nor  a  Doctor  in  Law  or  Philosophy ;  but  he  was 
none  the  less  a  Monk  of  intellectual  industry,  but  all 
the  more  so. 

Where  could  he  find  a  school  for  his  training  and  a 
diploma  for  his  attainments?  There  is  no  faculty  of 
Discovery  to  prescribe  its  studies  and  authenticate  its 
qualifications,  except  the  shut  world  of  the  unknown 
which  borders  and  embosoms  the  realm  of  established 
science,  and  the  open  world  of  opinion.  They  have 
given  him  his  diploma, — a  Master  in  Scientific  Enter 
prise. 

It  has  been  said  that  "the  self-taught  has  a  fool  for  his 
teacher."  That,  however,  depends  upon  whether  he  is  a 
fool  or  not;  and  the  maxim,  true  enough  in  general,  must 


SELF-CULTURE.  35 


be  applied  as  Ophelia  distributed  her  rosemary  and  rue, 
to  be  worn  "with  a  difference." 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  said  that  he  considered  it  as  fortu 
nate  that  he  was  left  much  to  himself  as  a  child,  and  put 
under  no  particular  plan  of  study.  But  Sir  Humphry 
had  genius,  and  had  the  command  of  it.  It  never  made 
a  fool  of  him;  and  his  common  sense  worked  like  a 
drudge  under  its  guidance.  Sir  Walter  Scott  says,  that 
"the  best  part  of  every  man's  education  is  that  which 
he  gives  himself."  This  is  universally  true.  Sir  Benja 
min  Brodie,  more  exactly  to  our  purpose,  "willingly 
admits  that  among  those  whose  intellect  is  of  the  higher 
order,  there  are  many  who  would  ultimately  accomplish 
greater  things,  if  in  early  life  they  were  left  more  to  their 
own  meditations  and  inventions  than  is  the  case  among 
the  more  highly  educated  classes  of  the  community."  He 
adds:  "A  high  education  is  a  leveller,  which,  while  it 
tends  to  improve  ordinary  minds  and  to  turn  idleness 
into  industry,  may,  in  some  instances,  have  the  effect  of 
preventing  the  full  expansion  of  genius.  The  great 
amount  of  acquirement  rendered  necessary  by  the  higher 
class  examinations,  as  they  are  now  conducted,  not  only 
in  the  universities,  but  in  some  other  institutions,  while 
it  strengthens  the  power  of  learning,  is  by  no  means 
favorable  to  the  higher  faculty  of  reflection." 

Dr.  Newman  is  even  more  bold.  Self-educated  persons, 
he  holds,  "are  likely  to  have  more  thought,  more  mind, 
more  philosophy,  than  those  earnest  but  ill-used  persons 
who  are  forced  to  lucJ.  their  minds  with  a  score  of  subjects 


36  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


against  an  examination;  who  have  too  much  on  their 
hands  to  indulge  themselves  in  thinking  or  investigation. 
....  How  much  better  is  it  for  the  active  and  thoughtful 
intellect,  where  such  is  to  be  found,  to  eschew  the  college 
and  university  altogether,  than  to  submit  to  a  drudgery 
so  ignoble,  a  mockery  so  contumelious !" 

Here  are  authorities  of  the  highest  rank,  and  points 
even  stronger  than  our  case  demands;  for  young  Kane 
very  sufficiently  availed  himself  of  the  help  of  the  schools, 
took  all  their  advantages,  and  kept  his  peculiarity  so  well 
within  system  as  to  corroborate  and  advance  his  own 
drift,  but  without  surrendering  its  freedom  or  abating  its 
force.  Whatever  the  schools  could  teach  for  his  use  he 
learned,  and  he  never  lost  it,  because  he  did  not  bolt,  but 
digested  and  assimilated,  the  nutriment  provided. 

He  was  not  a  radical  non-conformist,  but  a  resolute 
striver  after  the  true  ends  of  all  study.  His  self-culture 
under  his  own  system  was  just  as  far  from  rebellion  in 
fact  as  it  was  from  submission  in  form ;  and  so  he  grew 
in  strength,  and  in  favor  with  his  helpers.  This  is  the 
sort  of  self-culture  which  we  commend,  and  would  enforce 
by  the  example  of  his  great  success. 

He  left  the  Virginia  University,  as  we  have  seen,  dan 
gerously  ill.  This  was  in  his  eighteenth  year,  and  his 
collegiate  studies  were  at  an  end.  He  had  scarcely  arrived 
at  Philadelphia  when  his  disease  developed  itself  into  a 
very  bad  case  of  endo-carditis, — inflammation  of  the 
lining  membrane  of  the  heart.  For  a  long  time  his  family 
despaired  of  his  life.  He  was  himself  persuaded  that  there 


LIFE    IN    A    NEW    LIGHT. 


was  no  hope  of  his  ever  making  himself  useful  or  honored 
among  men.  "The  doctors  tell  me,"  he  used  to  say, 
"  that  if  I  throw  off  this  paroxysm,  I  may  live  a  month, 
or  perhaps  half  a  year ;  but  they  know,  and  I  know,  that 
I  may  be  struck  down  in  half  an  hour."  When  he  was 
so  far  recovered  as  to  sit  up,  he  underwent  paroxysms  of 
pain  and  suffocation  that  racked  his  slight  frame  to  the 
limit  of  its  strength ;  and  one  of  his  physicians  told  him 
that  an  incautious  movement  might  prove  fatal.  "You 
may  fall,"  said  he,  "Elisha,  as  suddenly  as  from  a  mus 
ket  shot." 

This  was  the  period  of  a  new  birth  to  him.  Coasting 
the  Infinite  so  long  and  so  near,  it  opened  its  scenery  to 
the  eyes  of  his  spirit.  He  walked  in  its  light  thence 
forth  through  his  journey  to  the  end.  He  was  let  into 
his  own  inmost  life ;  he  got  hold  of  his  destiny,  and  he 
ever  after  governed  himself  conformably. 

He  was  at  one  with  himself  now,  and  knew  how  to 
conciliate  order  and  liberty,  to  obey  and  to  command,  to 
accept  the  help  of  system,  and  to  preserve  his  individual 
ism  under  it  without  conflict;  he  stood  ready  to  die,  but 
he  did  not  despair. 

After  a  long  struggle,  which  seemed  to  promise  no 
speedy  or  certain  conclusion,  his  father  saw,  without  the 
aid  of  medical  science, — what  mere  science  is  not  always 
quick  to  discover, — that  his  disease  was  no  longer  organic 
or  structural,  but  neuropathic  or  functional,  and  applied 
the  heroic  remedy.  "  Elisha,  if  you  must  die,  die  in  the 
harness."  A  thousand  times  after,  the  doctor  met  dan- 


38  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


ger  and  faced  death  in  the  harness,  and  fought  his  way 
to  victory. 

He  rose  out  of  the  wreck  resolutely,  and  retrieved  his 
life,  in  a  strength  made  his  own  by  holding  it  in  fee  of 
chivalric  service.  This  is  the  simple  mystery  of  the 
man  through  his  whole  history.  There  is  nothing  else 
in  it  that  puzzles  our  judgments. 

He  recovered,  his  medical  attendant  says,  imperfectly, 
and  had,  all  his  life  after,  more  or  less  rheumatic  and 
cardiac  disease,  abated  somewhat,  perhaps,  while  he  was 
in  the  high  degrees  of  north  latitude,  by  the  incompati 
bility  of  these  affections  with  the  scurvy,  with  which  he 
was  deeply  tainted  in  his  last  Arctic  voyage. 

There  is  the  best  authority  for  the  opinion  that  his 
ailments  had  always  in  them  a  preponderant  character  of 
neuropathic  disturbance.  When  he  was  free,  or  compa 
ratively  free,  from  the  acute  form  of  his  rheumatic  com 
plaint,  his  nerves  were  tingling  and  rioting  with  irrita 
tion.  Add  the  susceptibility  and  distraction  of  this  con- 
'  stant  besetment  to  the  under-tow  of  organic  disease,  and 
his  struggles  may  be  estimated,  but  only  by  those  who 
are  similarly  harassed,  and  similarly  resolute  in  subduing 
their  demon. 

It  helps  in  the  apprehension  of  his  vigour  of  spirit,  to 
find  him  steady  and  str6ng  in  will  and  action,  firm  in 
purpose,  and  unwavering  in  enterprise,  all  along  the 
years  of  assiduous  preparation,  as  well  as  during  the 
whole  period,  of  his  great  achievements.  A  brave  heart 
and  a  sound  brain  may  easily  master  the  mischiefs  which 


CHANGE    OF    PROFESSION.  39 


they  have  the  health  to  hold  at  bay;  but  when  these 
bulwarks  of  resistance  and  salient  points  of  enterprise 
are. themselves  shattered  by  the  enemy,  it  depends  upon 
the  spirit  with  which  they  are  manned  whether  the 
struggle  shall  be  successful.  Then  it  is  that  the  victory  is 
due  to  the  resolution  to  conquer  or  "  die  in  the  harness." 

Instead  of  fitfulness,  capriciousness,  and  valetudina 
rianism,  our  young  hero  was  sedate,  earnest,  calm,  kind, 
gentle,  and  steadily  industrious. 

When  he  was  at  the  university,  while  the  life  in 
him  was  as  hopeful  as  it  was  earnest,  he  told  his  cousin 
that  he  had  "determined  to  make  his  mark  in  the 
world."  After  his  first  critical  attack,  with  death  con 
stantly  impending,  he  held  on  his  way  till  the  promise 
was  abundantly  fulfilled. 

From  whatever  impulse  he  then  spoke,  the  ambition 
of  his  after-life  was  of  that  kind  which  embraces  duty 
and  aims  at  service, — that  kind  which  seeks  power 
and  place  for  the  opportunities  they  give  for  heroic  and 
beneficent  uses.  To  such  the  good  Providence  intrusts 
the  well-being  of  the  world;  and  such  as  are  in  this 
spirit  faithful  in  a  few  things  on  earth  shall  be  made 
rulers  over  many  in  heaven. 

The  imperfect  and  unpromising  convalescence  from 
the  attack  of  cardiac  disease  which  terminated  his  col 
legiate  studies,  in  the  judgment  of  his  friends,  made  the 
profession  of  an  engineer  altogether  impracticable.  Be 
lieving  that  he  was  and  would  be  brooding  over  the 
symptoms  of  his  complaint,  which  was  sure  to  be 


40  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


chronic,  they  recommended  the  profession  of  medicine, 
in  the  hope  that  he  would  be  happier,  or  less  unhappy, 
if  he  understood  and  could  manage  his  own  case. 

He  conformed  to  his  necessity,  and  in  his  nineteenth 
year  he  entered  the  office  of  Dr.  William  Harris,  of 
Philadelphia,  where  his  preceptor  reports  him  to  have 
"prosecuted  his  various  studies  with  so  much  zeal  that 
he  made  rapid  progress,  and  seemed  to  have  always 
before  his  eyes  the  pledge  which  he  made  at  the  Univer 
sity  of  Virginia." 

On  the  19th  of  October,  1840,  he  was  elected  (being 
an  undergraduate  and  not  yet  twenty-one  years  of 
age)  Resident  Physician  in  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital, 
Blockley,  and  entered  upon  duty  on  the  25th  of  the 
same  month.  Under  the  system  then  in  operation  in 
the  hospital,  he  went  in  as  junior  to  Dr.  McPheeters. 
For  six  months  he  occupied  the  same  room  with  his 
principal.  Their  intimacy  was  close  and  their  friend 
ship  cordial.  Dr.  McPheeters  says  of  him,  that  "at  that 
time  his  health  was  delicate  and  his  appearance  even 
puerile,  notwithstanding  he  was  within  a  few  months 
of  his  majority.  He  was  laboring  under  a  serious 
organic  affection  of  the  heart — dilatation  with  valvular 
disease,  which  gave  rise  to  a  very  loud  bruit  de  soufflet, 
(bellows  sound,)  accompanied  by  the  most  tumultuous 
action  of  the  heart  from  any  violent  exertion.  He 
was  unable  to  sleep  in  a  horizontal  position,  but  was 
under  the  necessity  of  having  his  head  and  shoulders 
elevated,  almost  to  a  right  angle  with  his  body.  He 


STUDENT    AT    BLOCKLEY.  41 


was  fully  aware  of  the  gravity  of  his  disease,  as  he  often 
remarked  to  me  that  he  never  closed  his  eyes  at  night 
in  sleep  without  feeling  conscious  that  he  might  die 
before  morning ;  yet  this  consciousness  did  not  seem  to 
affect  his  spirits,  or  to  check  his  enthusiasm.  The 
habitual  contemplation  of  a  sudden  death  seemed  not  at 
all  to  affect  the  buoyancy  of  his  spirits,  or  to  abate  the 
ardor  with  which  he  pursued  the  objects  of  his  ambition. 
I  have  always  thought  that  the  uncertain  state  of  his 
health  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  his  subsequent  course 
of  life,  and  the  almost  reckless  exposure  of  himself  to 
danger." 

"At  the  time  that  he  entered  the  hospital  he  had 
attended  one  course  of  lectures,  and  had  been  a  good 
student;  but,  as  a  matter  of  course,  he  was  little  ac 
quainted  with  the  practical  duties  of  the  profession. 
This,  however,  he  soon  acquired  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  in  the  hospital,  which  were  always  performed 
with  more  than  usual  fidelity  and  earnestness.  At  first 
his  extremely  youthful  appearance  rather  subjected  him 
to  a  want  of  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  patients;  but 
his  dignity  of  character,  great  intelligence,  and  fidelity, 
soon  overcame  all  obstacles  of  this  kind,  and  he  rapidly 
acquired  the  respect  and  confidence  both  of  his  associates 
and  patients.  I  regarded  him  from  the  first  as  a  young 
man  of  fine  talents,  of  more  than  ordinary  cultivation, 
and  remarkably  quick  perception,  accompanied  with  an 
ardent  devotion  to  the  pursuit  of  his  profession.  He  was 
an  habitual  student,  and  took  particular  interest  in  the 


42  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


numerous  post  mortem  examinations  made  by  myself  and 
others — indeed,  he  manifested  a  great  fondness  for  patho 
logical  investigations." 

In  the  spring  of  1841  Dr.  McPheeters  left  the  hospital, 
and  his  young  friend  and  junior  of  six  months'  standing, 
early  in  his  twenty-second  year,  and  still  an  under 
graduate,  became,  under  the  rule,  one  of  the  four  seniors 
resident,  who  had  the  general  charge  of  the  patients.  To 
the  system  of  study  and  training  in  medicine,  especially 
as  theory  undergoes  the  correction  of  facts  in  hospital 
practice,  he  gave  his  consent,  and  he  went  through  it  as 
he  accomplished  every  thing  else  he  ever  gave  himself 
to  in  his  life, — something  better  than  the  best  of  his 
compeers. 

Passing  over,  for  the  present,  the  most  important 
part  of  Dr.  McPheeters'  contribution-  to  these  reminis 
cences,  I  make  two  other  extracts,  that  we  may  have 
our  subject  before  us  as  he  stood  in  the  apprehension  of 
an  intimate  personal  and  professional  friend  during  half 
a  year  of  that  period  which  was  to  determine  his  destiny. 

"At  the  time  that  I  speak  of,"  continues  Dr. 
McPheeters,  "  Dr.  Kane  was  a  man  of  great  purity  of 
character.  Although  surrounded  by  temptations,  I  am 
not  aware  that  he  had  any  bad  habits;  indeed,  I  re 
garded  his  moral  character  as  above  reproach.  In  his 
filial  relations,  too,  his  conduct  was  peculiarly  exem 
plary.  I  have  always  admired  the  relations  which 
existed  between  Judge  (then  Mr.)  and  Mrs.  Kane  and 
their  children  as  I  witnessed  them  at  their  fireside,  as 


REASON    FOR    CELIBACY.  43 


well  as  they  were  exhibited  in  the  character  and  con 
duct  of  Dr.  Kane.  His  parents  seemed  to  be  his 
confidential  friends  and  advisers.  The  relations  which 
subsisted  between  them  were  tender  and  affectionate, 
and  at  the  same  time  free  from  all  restraint  and  embar 
rassment.  This,  in  my  estimation,  added  greatly  to  the 
charm  of  Dr.  Kane's  character." 

An  anecdote  which  Dr.  McPheetef  s  furnishes  opens  a 
light  in  another  direction  into  the  mind  of  Doctor  Kane 
at  the  time,  and  prepares  us  on  this  point  for  his  future 
history. 

"  On  one  occasion,  when  going  the  rounds  of  the  out 
wards,  or  almshouse  department,  with  Dr.  Kane,  we 
encountered  a  miserable,  squalid,  diminutive,  and  de 
formed  pauper,  who  had  married  quite  a  good-looking 
woman  in  the  house.  As  we  passed  this  interesting 
couple,  I  jocosely  asked  the  doctor  '  what  he  supposed 
must  be  the  contemplations  of  that  woman  as  she 
beheld  that  miserable  object,  and  reflected  that  he  was 
her  lord  and  master?'  He  paused  for  a  moment,  and 
then  replied  in  a  serious  tone,  '  It  is  to  save  some  lady 
just  such  reflections  as  these  that  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  never  to  marry.' " 

How  heavily  the  consciousness  of  physical  disease 
must  have  hung  upon  him  at  twenty-one !  How  gloomy 
the'  future  of  a  youth  so  finely  though  slightly  formed, 
who,  in  full  health,  would  have  passed  for  a  model  of 
personal  beauty!  And  how  generous,  though  morbid, 
the  exaggeration  of  his  disqualifying  infirmities ! 


*  CHAPTER  III. 

SENIOR  PHYSICIAN  AT  BLOCKLEY — DUTIES  AND  STUDIES — INAUGURAL 
THESIS — VERDICT  OF  THE  PROFESSION — PHYSIOLOGICAL  EXPLORA 
TION,  METHODOLOGY,  APPARATUS,  CERTITUDE — UNREST,  CAUSE  AND 
CURE — ASSISTANT  SURGEON  UNITED  STATES  NAVY — BETTER  HEALTH 
— CHINA  MISSION — FIRST  VOYAGE — "  AS  IT  IS  WRITTEN7' — STUDIES 
ABOARD — AROUND  BOMBAY CEYLON — TROPIC  LIFE. 

IN  the  spring  of  1841,  a  few  months  after  he  attained 
his  majority,  and  a  year  before  he  graduated,  he  was 
installed,  as  we  have  seen,  one  of  the  Senior  Physicians 
Eesident  at  Blockley.  The  heavy  duties  and  responsi 
bilities  of  his  office  were  upon  him,  added  to  the  studies 
preliminary  to  his  expected  graduation  in  medicine, 
surgery,  obstetrics,  chemistry,  and  all  the  tributary 
branches  of  the  healing  art  which  enter  into  our  omni 
bus  system  of  tuition,  under  the  genuine  American 
notion  that  nothing  less  than  too  much  is  plenty  of  any 
thing.  But  he  found  time,  as  the  events  of  the  year 
showed,  for  all  this,  and  for  a  margin  of  collateral  inves 
tigations  large  enough  in  itself  to  pack  the  pages  of  a 
year's  progress  in  an  ordinary  man's  work. 

44 


INAUGUKAL    THESIS.  45 


In  the  year  1831  M.  Nauche  had  communicated  to 
the  Society  of  Practical  Medicine  of  Paris  some  observa 
tions  upon  a  new  substance  found  in  the  renal  secretion, 
which  he  called  kyestein,  and  announced  as  an  indubi 
table  test  in  cases  of  suspected  utero-gestation.  The 
importance  of  this  discovery  made  it  the  subject  of  a 
critical  examination  in  Europe,  and,  at  the  request  of 
Dr.  Dunglison,  Drs.  McPheeters  and  Perry,  in  the  spring 
of  1840,  instituted  a  series  of  experiments  in  the  Blockley 
Hospital,  the  results  of  which  they  published  in  the 
"Medical  Intelligencer"  in  March,  1841.  Dr.  Kane,  as 
Junior  at  the  time,  had  studiously  watched  the  investi 
gation,  and  when  his  principal,  Dr.  McPheeters,  retired, 
availing  himself  of  his  apparatus  and  the  insight  gained 
in  the  preceding  six  months,  "pushed  the  subject  of 
kyestein,"  as  Dr.  McPheeters  very  frankly  says,  "much 
farther  than  I  had  done,  and  wrote  his  inaugural  thesis 
upon  it,  the  publication  of  which  gave  him  great  celebrity, 
— and  justly  too." 

With  the  results  at  which  Dr.  Kane  arrived  we  have 
nothing  more  to  do  now  than  to  state  their  value  in  the 
estimation  of  the  profession. 

Samuel  Jackson,  M.D.,  Professor  of  the  Institutes  of 
Medicine  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  his  vale 
dictory  address  to  the  graduating  class  of  that  institution 
on  the  28th  of  March,  1857,  says,  "It  is  fifteen  years 
and  two  days,  to  the  hour,  when  Elisha  Kent  Kane  stood 
on  this  platform,  in  this  room,  and  received  the  medical 
diploma  of  the  University.  However  sanguine  may 


46  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


have  been  his  anticipations  of  professional  success  and 
reputation,  (and  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  such  were 
entertained  by  him?)  he  was  fully  justified  in  that  expec 
tancy.  He  was  the  foremost  student  of  the  class ;  the 
thesis  he  had  presented  to  the  Faculty  had  been  honored 
by  a  vote  of  approbation  and  a  request  for  its  publica 
tion.*  In  this  treatise,  a  subject  that  had  recently  been 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  profession  by  Nauche,  and 
was  still  a  matter  of  controversy,  was  investigated  and 
permanently  settled.  The  conclusions  of  Dr.  Kane  were 
f^-awn  from  a  series  of  experiments  and  observations  on 
One  hundred  and  seventy-nine  individuals,  and  have 
been  entirely  acquiesced  in.  The  subject  has  remained 
undisturbed  in  the  position  in  which  his  publication 
placed  it. '  Th.s,  his  first  step  in  medicine,  made  his 
name  an  authority  on  that  question  that  time  has  not 
weakened;  it  established  a  reputation  that  has  not 
been  dimmed,  and  was  an  augury  of  professional  pre 


eminence." 


Dr.  Dunglison, — the  most  competent,  comprehensive, 
and  critical  of  our  text-book  authors, — in  his  well-known 
"Physiology,"  speaking  of  this  investigation,  says,  "The 
result  of  Dr.  Kane's  observations,  which  the  author  had 
an  opportunity  of  examining  from  time  to  time,  and  for 

*  Extract  from  the  minutes : — "  The  following  resolution  was  offered 
by  Dr.  Jackson,  and  unanimously  passed  :  '  That  the  Dean  be  desired  to 
communicate  to  Mr.  E.  K.  Kane  the  approbation  of  the  Faculty  for  his 
able  and  instructive  thesis,  and  that  he  be  requested  to  have  it  pub 
lished/  "  Dated  March  18,  1842. 


VERDICT  OF  THE  PROFESSION.        47 


the  accuracy  of  which  he  can  vouch,  was  deduced  by 
Dr.  Kane  as  follows/'  &c. 

M.  Simon,  of  Berlin,  Prussia,  who  had  investigated 
the  subject  with  great  zeal  and  care,  refers  (in  his 
"  Animal  Chemistry,"  English  edition  of  1846)  to  our 
young  author  thus  : — "  From  the  observations  of  Kane 
and  myself  it  seems  to  follow," — endorsing  and  affirming 
the  doctrine  of  the  thesis. 

A   dozen   distinguished   cultivators   of    medical   and 
chemical  science  in  Europe  and  America  were  engaged 
in  this  research;  yet  among  them  all  Kane  made  his 
first  "  mark  in  the  world,"  to  the  effect  which  our  qudfa** 
tions  testify. 

The  general  reader  is  not  concerned  with  the  subject- 
matter  of  Dr.  Kane's  inaugural  thesis;  bri>  there  is  that 
in  the  mind  and  method  of  the  young  naturalist  which 
is  much  to  the  purpose  of  these  pages. 

Young  and  enthusiastic  as  he  was,  he  adjusted  him 
self  to  his  difficult  and  doubtful  inquiry  in  that  spirit  of 
philosophic  caution  which  equally  avoids  the  anticipation 
and  the  oversight  of  facts.  His  mind  was  well  balanced 
between  the  skepticism  and  the  credulity  of  physical  dis 
covery,  for  which  mental  integrity  is  as  necessary  as 
mental  capacity. 

He  had  witnessed  the  experiments  of  highly  compe 
tent  persons,  and  had  observed  their  confidence  in  the 
inferences  which  they  drew  from  them.  Weighty  au 
thorities  were  in  the  field  before  him,  but  he  was  "  care 
ful  to  avoid  the  influence  which  the  known  opinions  of 


48  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


others  might  have  had  upon  the  freedom  of  his  own." 
He  noticed  that  the  aggregate  of  all  the  observations 
made  upon  the  subject  in  the  ten  years  before  he  under 
took  it  did  not  quite  number  sixty  cases.  He  extended 
his,  not  only  to  the  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  cases 
tabled  in  his  report,  but  to  ninety-two  enumerated  cases 
besides,  not  directly  involved  in  his  category,  but  exa 
mined  for  the  corrective  cross-lights  which  they  threw 
upon  those  that  fell  fully  within  the  inquiry  •  and,  he 
adds,  in  general  terms,  "  numerous  others,"  the  subjects 
of  various  diseases  and  of  various  ages  and  conditions, 
which  might  by  possibility  modify  the  results  he  was 
aiming  at. 

Indicating  the  method  of  his  procedure,  and  the  con 
siderations  which  controlled  it,  he  says,  "My  notes 
were,  always  made  upon  the  spot.  If,  from  any  cause, 
an  individual  observation,  or  a  series,  was  unsatisfactory 
or  inconclusive,  or  if  it  led  to  a  different  result  from 
others,  I  repeated  it  at  once  with  increased  care;  and  I 
was  always  careful  to  observe  the  constitution,  habits, 
and  circumstances  of  each  patient."  Of  all  which,  in 
deed,  his  tabled  cases  give  the  most  ample  and  satisfactory 
proof. 

He  remarks,  upon  the  caution  and  comprehensiveness 
of  his  laboriously  exact  inquiries,  that,  "To  justify 
general  conclusions,  a  large  number  of  cases  should  be 
examined,  individually  and  in  group,  and  their  progress, 
changes,  and  points  of  difference  noted.  They  should 
be  viewed  under  different  aspects,  at  regular  and  fre- 


PHYSIOLOGICAL    EXPLORATIONS.  49 


quently  recurring  intervals.  If  the  indications  of  a  par 
ticular  case  should  appear  to  vary  from  those  of  others, 
repeated  observations  would  become  necessary  to  detect 
the  causes  of  variance;  and  the  influence  of  similar 
causes  upon  other  cases,  where  they  existed,  also  should 
then  be  sought  for.  And  I  may  be  excused  for  adding 
that  a  candid  spirit,  not  too  much  biassed  in  favor  of 
theory  to  admit  the  existence  of  observed  exceptions — 
that  looks  to  each  clearly-ascertained  result  as  an  inde 
pendent  element,  and  that  rejects  nothing  that  appears 
true  because  irreconcilable  with  what  was  known  before — 
is  not  less  important  to  the  formation  of  correct  opinions 
than  the  most  careful  and  varied  scrutiny  of  facts." 

"It  is  not  meant  by  this,"  he  adds,  deferentially,  "that 
the  gentlemen  who  have  treated  on  this  subject  have 
been  regardless  of  these  precautions,  or  wanting  in  the 
proper  spirit  of  inquiry;  but  it  is  apparent  that  their 
observations  have  been  rather  of  isolated  cases  than  of 
classes,  that  they  have  not  compared  a  large  number  of 
results,  and  that  they  have  failed  to  detect  any  exceptions 
to  their  general  conclusions." 

These  paragraphs  contain  a  very  complete  directory 
for  physical  investigation  in  all  its  applications.  They 
are  a  plain  translation  into  specialities  of  all  that  is 
found  in  Mills  and  Comte  on  the  conduct  of  the  under 
standing  in  philosophic  researches, — all  that  the  one 
means  by  "the  empirical  law  deriving  whatever  of  truth 
it  has  from  the  causal  laws  of  which  it  is  a  consequence," 
and  all  that  the  other  intends  by  "  the  reciprocal  verifica- 


50  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


tion  of  laws  and  facts  carried  on  pari  passu" — with  the 
advantage  of  being  analytically  rendered  into  guide-book 
clearness,  and  definitely  presented  for  practical  use,  and 
illustrated,  moreover,  by  the  method  of  his  own  process,  of 
which  these  abstract  directions  are  but  a  just  description. 

It  is  surprising  that  a  boy  in  years  and  experience 
should  thus  put  himself  abreast  of  the  adepts  who  were 
in  the  field  of  scientific  discovery  against  him ;  but  when 
we  find  him  working  under  direction  of  an  unerring 
method,  intuitively  his  own,  the  surprise  shifts,  from  the 
success  achieved,  to  the  philosophic  spirit  of  system  so 
early  and  so  fully  attained. 

The  chemical  tests  employed  seem  to  have  exhausted 
the  known  resources  of  that  science  for  the  elucidation 
of  his  subject;  and  the  doubt  which  he  intimates,  of  the 
capability  of  chemical  agents  for  rendering  the  secrets  of 
vital  phenomena,  shows  an  equally  bold  and  clear  appre 
hension  of  a  truth  which  concerns  the  morals  as  well  as 
the  certainties  of  the  Inductive  Philosophy. 

In  the  same  free  spirit  he  speaks  of  the  microscopic 
observations,  practised  with  great  assiduity  and  with  the 
best  assistance  which  he  could  secure :  he  says,  "  I  do  not 
venture  to  claim  for  these  the  same  confidence  which  is 
due  to  my  examinations  by  the  unassisted  eye." 

It  is  something  unusual  to  find  an  ardent  under 
graduate  so  free  from  the  blandishments  of  authority  and 
the  imposture  of  apparatus,  where  all  their  testimonies, 
as  in  his  case,  make  for  the  very  conclusions  which  he 
inclines  to  receive  and  is  tempted  to  adopt. 


UNREST,    CAUSE    AND    CUEE.  51 


This  man  was  singularly  fitted,  mentally  and  morally, 
for  discovery  in  natural  science. 

The  "  die-in-the-harness"  resolution  was  in  full  play, 
as  we  have  seen,  during  the  year  and  a  half  of  hospital 
service  and  study  at  Blockley.  Several  times  it  seemed 
to  be  near  its  finishing  fulfilment :  the  doctor  was  more 
than  once  carried  home  on  men's  shoulders  to  be  nursed, 
and  returned  again  to  his  official  duties  and  scientific 
pursuits  at  the  earliest  moment  of  adequate  strength. 

But  it  was  not  all  desperation  that  determined  him  to 
labor  in  spite  of  pain.  It  had  become  apparent  that  his 
system  would  not  brook  repose ;  rest  was  not  his  remedy : 
unintermitting  activity  was  proved,  on  fair  trial,  to  be  his 
best  medicine.  This  was  true  of  his  whole  subsequent 
life;  and  his  apprehension  of  this  necessity  explains  and 
justifies  the  tension  and  persistency  of  his  enterprise, 
otherwise  liable  to  be  ascribed  to  impulses  more  heroic 
and  reckless  than  reasonable  or  even  excusable.  The 
current  of  his  life  shows  convincingly  that  incessant  toil 
and  exposure  was  a  sound  hygienic  policy  in  his  case. 
Naturally  his  physical  constitution  was  a  case  of  coil- 
springs,  compacted  till  they  quivered  with  their  own 
mobility;  nervous  disease  had  added  its  irritability,  and 
mental  energy  electrified  them.  It  was  doing  or  dying 
with  him.  And  it  was  not  a  tyrant  selfishness,  a  wild 
ambition,  that  ruled  his  life,  but  a  rare  concurrence  of 
mental  aptitude,  moral  impulse,  and  bodily  necessity, 
that  kept  him  incessant  in  adventure.  If  some  of  his 
performances  which  we  have  to  record  transcend  even 


52  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


the  large  range  which  a  right  regimen  dictated,  it  is  only 
their  excess,  not  their  quality  or  purpose,  which  invites 
a  candid  censure.  When  anatomy  was  but  little  ad 
vanced,  the  sinews  were  called  nerves;  and  the  adjective 
"nervous"  is  thence  employed  by  literary  people  to  mean 
strong,  vigorous;  in  colloquial  phrase  the  same  word  is 
used  for  irritable,  agitated.  Put  both  these  senses  of  the 
word  together,  and  you  will  have  some  notion  of  the 
way  the  nerves  were  strung  in  our  subject. 

His  father  was  so  well  persuaded  of  all  this,  that,  when 
Elisha  was  about  to  graduate  in  medicine,  he  applied, 
without  consulting  him,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
for  a  warrant  of  examination  for  the  post  of  surgeon  in 
the  service.  The  doctor  was  not  a  little  dissatisfied  with 
the  sudden  diversion  of  his  drift,  when  he  learned  what 
had  been  done  and  how  he  was  committed.  The  en 
thusiasm  of  his  last  year's  researches  was  strong  upon 
him;  his  plans  looked  to  continued  occupation  in  the 
career  he  had  entered  upon  with  so  much  success;  and, 
beside  this,  his  hospital-training  and  habit  of  mind  were 
rather  alien  than  helpful  to  the  special  duties  of  ship 
board  practice. 

But  he  resolutely  faced  about;  and  the  first  good  fruit 
of  the  new  endeavor  was  a  decided  improvement  in  his 
health,  under  the  hard  work  of  preparing  himself  for  his 
new  examination. 

He  stood  the  inquisition  of  the  Board  of  Navy  Sur 
geons  handsomely.  There  were  four  candidates  so  nearly 
equal  in  the  judgment  of  the  examining  Board  that  they 


FIRST    SEA-VOYAGE.  53 


settled  their  relative  rank  by  the  rule  of  seniority.  Dr. 
Kane  stood  third  in  the  report  made  under  this  rule. 

Bad  health  may  disqualify  a  navy  surgeon  for  the  per 
formance  of  his  duty,  and  is  properly  a  ground  of  rejec 
tion,  -however  well  he  may  be  otherwise  fitted  for  the 
place.  After  Dr.  Kane  had  passed  his  examination,  he 
frankly  told  the  Board  that  he  labored  under  chronic 
rheumatism  and  cardiac  disturbance,  and  that  he  knew 
they  could  reject  him  for  that  cause.  But  the  metal  in 
the  man  outweighed  his  physical  infirmities  in  their  esti 
mation,  and  they  refused  to  re-examine  him. 

There  was  no  vacancy  at  this  time  on  the  roll  of 
assistanksurgeons.  Mr.  Webster  was  in  the  administra 
tion,  and  the  public  expectation  had  named  him  as  our 
minister  to  China.  Dr.  Kane's  friend,  Dr.  Chapman, 
obtained  Mr.  "Webster's  promise  that  he  should  be  the 
physician  of  the  embassy;  and  it  was  arranged  with  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  that  he  might  accept  the  place 
without  prejudice  to  his  rank  in  the  service.  Mr.  Cush- 
ing,  who  was  ultimately  charged  with  the  mission, 
adopted  the  friendly  purpose  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  the 
doctor  accordingly  sailed  in  the  frigate  Brandywine, 
Commodore  Parker,  for  the  Eastern  seas,  in  May,  1843. 

This  was  his  first  searvoyage.  The  vessel,  after  touch 
ing  at  Madeira,  passed  on  to  Rio  de  Janeiro.  There  they 
were  just  in  time  to  witness  the  coronation  of  the  Em 
press  of  Brazil,  and  the  officers  of  the  legation  bore  part 
in  the  ceremonial.  While  they  remained  in  port,  the 
doctor  availed  himself  of  an  opportunity  for  a  trip  to 


54  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


the  Eastern  Andes  of  Brazil,  and  he  examined  with  some 
care  the  geological  character  of  the  region. 

Some  very  brief  memoranda  of  this  excursion  were 
transcribed  from  his  diary  in  letters  to  his  friends  at 
home;  but  the  journal  of  the  grand  tour  then  before 
him,  with  all  its  sketches  of  objects  and  scenery,  was  lost 
on  the  Nile,  as  he  returned,  by  an  accident  which  will 
be  narrated  in  the  proper  place;  and  he  never  had  the 
leisure  to  restore  his  notes  even  so  far  as  memory  might 
have  served  to  replace  the  record  to  any  purpose.  There 
was,  in  fact,  not  this  much  in  him  that  would  work 
backward.  As  in  the  case  of  his  inaugural  thesis,  he 
always  took  his  notes  upon  the  spot,  and  when  he  pub 
lished  them  afterward  his  books  were  scarcely  any  thing 
but  his  journals  emptied  into  type.  His  writings  that 
have  charmed  the  world  are,  as  nearly  as  any  other 
man's  ever  were,  his  books  of  original  entry.  There  are 
several  instances,  in  his  three  volumes  of  Arctic  Explora 
tions,  where  his  notes  seemed  to  him  of  questionable 
accuracy;  but  a  rigid  observance  of  a  good  rule  restrained 
correction  by  his  memory, .  and  he  put  them  down  as 
they  were  written.  He  had  a  conscience  in  literary 
composition,  and  a  habitual  respect  for  the  difference 
between  the  litera  scripta  and  the  vestiges  of  memory 
in  the  statement  of  facts. 

The  loss  of  his  journal  on  the  Nile  makes  it  difficult 
to  detail  satisfactorily  the  story  of  his  Eastern  travels 
and  adventures,  and  deprives  us,  besides,  of  his  observa 
tions  by  the  way, — a  loss  even  more  material ;  for  we 


AROUND    BOMBAY.  55 


could  better  spare  the  personal  adventures  of  any  year 
of  the  fourteen,  crowded  as  they  all  were  with  inci 
dents  of  travel,  and  peril,  and  bold  achievement,  than 
the  fruits  of  art  and  thought  which  he  gleaned  from 
them  in  a  day. 

The  frigate  went  to  Bombay,  to  meet  Mr.  Commis 
sioner  Gushing,  who  followed  by  the  overland  route. 

During  the  voyage  he  occupied  himself  with  the 
severer  studies  of  geometry,  algebra,  navigation,  and  in 
the  languages  of  modern  Europe.  A  young  midship 
man,  Mr.  Weaver,  for  whom  he  formed  a  warm  and 
generous  affection,  became  his  pupil  in  these.  Among 
their  studies  the  Bible  and  Shakspeare  had  their  place. 

• 

With  the  admirable  idiom  of  these  handbooks  of  the 
head  and  heart  few  laymen  were  more  conversant  than 
Dr.  Kane,  and  he  is  a  more  than  ordinary  wise  man 
who  has  profited  more  in  the  practical  wisdom  of  their 
teachings. 

Mr.  Gushing  was  delayed  by  the  burning  of  the  steam- 
frigate  Missouri,  which  had  carried  him  to  Gibraltar,  so 
that  the  legation  lay  for  some  months  at  Bombay  await 
ing  him,  and  enjoying  the  hospitalities  of  the  British 
officials  of  the  station. 

During  this  detention  of  the  frigate  Dr.  Kane  was  an 
active  traveller.  He  visited  the  caverned  temples  of 
Elephanta,  excavated  from  the  rock  of  a  mountain-side 
on  the  island  of  that  name  in  the  vicinity  of  Bombay, 
journeyed  by  palanquin  to  Ellorah  and  Dowlatabad, 
crossed  the  Ghauts  at  Karidalah,  and  explored  the  rarely- 


56  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


visited  cave-ternples  at  Karli,  situated  on  the  coast  of  the 
continent  opposite  the  larger  island  of  Salsette. 

Returning  to  Bombay  from  this  excursion,  and  finding 
that  he  had  time  and  opportunity  for  further  research, 
he  passed  over  to  Ceylon,  pressed  onward  to  the  interior, 
under  the  friendly  escort  of  some  gentlemen  of  the  gar 
rison,  and  shared  in  the  elephant-hunt  and  -the  rare 
sports  of  the  jungles.  Here,  where  the  wild  game  is  the 
elephant,  which  is  considered  of  better  quality  than  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world, — not  quite  so  tall  as  on 
the  continent,  but  particularly  active  and  hardy, — and 
where  the  wooded  hills  around  Candy,  the  interior  capi 
tal,  which  is  only  a  large  straggling  village,  echo  conti 
nually  with  the  cries  of  birds  and  wild  beasts,  was  a 
field  of  richly-assorted  sports,  and  a  rare  chance  for  the 
coveted  exercise. 

He  used  to  refer  to  this  as  a  time  of  delightful  excite 
ment.  The  risk  edged  the  relish  of  the  joyance,  and  he 
feasted  to  the  full  upon  the  tropical  wealth  of  novelty 
which  everywhere  surrounded  him,  multiplied  in  its 
effect  by  its  infinite  variety  :  "  here  he  picnicked  in  the 
summer-palace  among  the  hills,  took  his  nooning  under 
the  taliput  palms,  and  waked  to  the  wild  hazards  of  the 
chase." 

If  the  pen  and  pencil  of  the  Arctic  artist  had  painted 
Ceylon  in  the  colors  of  his  first  surprise,  the  picture 
would  spare  some  ineffectual  wing-work  of  the  fancy 
which  endeavors  to  realize  it  as  he  saw  and  felt  it. 


CHAPTER  IY. 

THE  FORETHOUGHT  OP  TRAVEL — LUZON — THE  NEGRITOS — A  GRAND 
RAMBLE — A  VAGRANT  SOUVENIR — VOLCANO  OF  TAEL,  DESCRIPTION 
AND  HISTORY — DESCENT  OF  THE  CRATER — AN  INDIGNANT  IDOL — 
SKIRMISH  WITH  THE  PYGMIES — THE  "  TREATY  FORTNIGHT" — KI- 
YING  AND  GUSHING — ANTIPODAL  GENTLEMEN — A  DINNER — CELES 
TIAL  HEALTH-DRINKING ATTACHES — DIPLOMATIC  DANCE — DISAP 
POINTMENT. 

AFTER  a  tedious  voyage  from  Ceylon,  the  legation 
reached  Macao,  and  the  doctor  remained  connected  with 
it  until  the  negotiations  were  closed  by  the  treaty  of  3d 
July,  1844.  But  he  was  not  idle  during  the  six  or 
seven  months  of  the  slow  proceedings  of  Chinese  diplo 
macy.  He  was  not  attached  to  the  service  now  as  a 
surgeon  of  the  navy,  but  as  physician  to  the  embassy; 
and,  obtaining  Mr.  Cushing's  sanction,  he  provided  a 
substitute  to  serve  in  his  place  in  case  of  need,  and 
crossed  the  China  Sea  to  Luzon. 

Before  leaving  home,  he  had  been  furnished  by  Arch 
bishop  Eccleston,  of  Baltimore,  and  by  his  friend  Bishop 
Kenrick,  then  of  Philadelphia,  with  letters  to  the  Arch 
bishop  of  Manilla.  Under  the  auspices  of  this  distin- 

57 


58  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


guished  prelate,  he  was  enabled  to  make  a  more  complete 
exploration  of  the  Philippines  than  any  foreigner  had  at 
that  time  effected. 

That  he  had  the  purposes  of  the  traveller  in  prospect 
before  he  sailed,  and  intended  to  avail  himself  of  all  the 
opportunities  of  the  cruise,  is  indicated  by  his  precaution 
to  secure  these  and  other  letters  from  the  Catholic 
bishops,  addressed  to  the  faithful  throughout  the  world, 
and,  along  with  them,  letters  in  the  nature  of  protection's 
from  the  Papal  consuls  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  France. 
He  had  been  accommodated,  to  the  same  purpose,  by  Mr. 
George  R.  Russell  to  his  correspondents  in  Manilla,  and 
he  had  similar  letters  from  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 
Missions,  to  meet  his  exigencies  at  their  missionary 
stations,  and  from  the  Lutheran  and  Moravian  officials 
of  the  like  purport. 

The  island  of  Luzon,  or  Luconia,  the  largest  of  the 
Philippines,  is  briefly  described  in  the  books,  quoting 
Balbi,  as  having  an  area  of  about  fifty  thousand  square 
miles,  and  a  population  of  two  and  a  quarter  millions,— 
the  western  portion  under  the  government  of  Spain, 
with  Manilla  (population  one  hundred  and  forty  thou 
sand)  for  its  capital,  and  the  eastern  or  Pacific  coast  in 
possession  of  independent  savages.  "  It  is  covered,"  says 
Murray,  "to  a  great  extent  with  high  mountains,  among 
which  are  several  active  volcanos,  with  hot  springs  in 
their  vicinity,  and  violent  earthquakes  have  been  felt  at 
Manilla  and  in  other  quarters.  The  aboriginal  inhabit 
ants  consist  of  two  races,  the  Malays  and  a  tribe  of 


A    VAGRANT    SOUVENIR.  59 


negroes  called  Negritos.  The  former  have,  with  some 
exceptions,  submitted  to  the  sway  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
embraced  Christianity.  The  Negritos  are  generally  inde 
pendent:  they  are  represented,  also,  as  dwarfs  or  pyg 
mies  in  stature,  and  among  the  lowest  forms  of  humanity 
in  all  their  characteristics.  The  native  languages  of  the 
island  are  the  Tagalic  and  Bisago." 

Dr.  Kane  traversed  the  island  from  Manilla  to  its 
Pacific  coast,  and,  with  his  usual  audacity,  explored  its 
fastnesses,  bathed  in  the  forbidden  waters  of  its  asphaltic 
lake,  descended  to  the  very  bottom  of  its  great  volcano, 
and  perilled  his  life  in  a  contest  with  a  band  of  savages 
who  were  incensed  by  his  profanation  of  their  sacred 
mysteries. 

A  history  and  description  of  the  volcano,  written  by  a 
friar  in  a  convent  near  Manilla,  for  the  doctor,  and 
probably  at  his  request,  followed  him  by  a  route  and 
with  incidents  of  travel  almost  as  devious  and  remark 
able  as  his  own  journeyings.  It  was  carried  by  a  Manilla 
sea-captain  to  China,  another  carried  it  after  him  to 
Calcutta  or  Bombay,  through  half  a  dozen  hands  it 
reached  New  York,  thence  it  went  on  its  way  to  Illinois, 
and  finally,  after  a  trip  of  twelve  years,  it  reached  its 
ultimate  destination  in  the  summer  of  1856.  It  was 
put  into  his  hands  as  he  sat  at  his  dinner-table,  with  the 
sufferings  of  all  those  years  recorded  in  his  system  and 
pointing  to  other  interests  than  those  which  absorbed 
him  when  it  was  written.  He  laid  it  aside,  and  never 
opened  it. 


60  ELISHA  .KENT   KANE. 


It  is  endorsed,  "Description  of  a  Volcano  in  the 
Island  of  Luconia.  Written  by  a  Friar  in  a  Convent 
near  Manilla,  for  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane;  left  with  Henry 
Hesketh  for  translation."  It  has  the  following  subscrip 
tion  : — "  This  is  as  much  as  I  can  relate  to  my  friend  Mr. 
Elisha  Kent  Kane.  T.  G.  AZAOLA,  Manilla,  27th  April, 
1844." 

This  Mr.  Hesketh  had  left  Illinois  for  Trinidad,  Cali 
fornia,  and  died  there  in  1850.  The  document  was  for 
warded  by  his  administrator  to  Dr.  Kane  at  Philadelphia, 
when  his  celebrity  as  an  Arctic  voyageur  had  made  his 
name  a  sufficient  direction  to  his  residence. 

From  this  description  of  the  volcano  and  history  of 
its  eruptions,  which  entire  would  fill  fifteen  of  our  pages, 
we  extract  so  much  only  as  may  help  to  a  tolerable 
estimate  of  the  adventure  which  makes  it  a  matter  of 
special  interest  in  this  work. 

"VOLCANO  OF  TAEL. 

"  The  Indians  have  no  word  expressive  of  this  phe 
nomenon,  and,  as  it  is  situated  on  an  island,  they  call  it 
Pulo,  the  '  Tagalo'  [Tagalic  word]  for  island.  This  island, 
which  is  formed  by  a  mountain  from  three  hundred  and 
fifty  to  four  hundred  yards  perpendicular  above  the  level 
of  the  Laguna  de  Bombon,  is  about  three  leagues  in 
circumference,  and  in  its  summit  is  seen  a  crater  two 
miles  in  circumference.  The  walls  which  form  this 
crater  are  fifty  to  seventy-five  yards  in  perpendicular 
height  from  its  base,  which  renders  a  descent  into  it 
impossible  without  the  aid  of  ropes  or  ladders.  At  the 


VOLCANO    OF    TAEL.  61 


bottom  of  the  crater,  which  is  smoking,  are  seen  four  or 
five  peaks  or  cones  covered  with  sulphur.  All  the  rest 
is  a  lake  of  green  water  which  boils  in  several  places, 
and  should  contain  sulphuric  acid.  Neither  basaltes  nor 
lava  are  found  in  all  the  mountain  or  volcano,  nor  scoriae 
and  burnt  clay,  nor  any  pumice-stone. 

"The  lake  in  which  stands  this  island,  volcano,  or 
Palo  has  a  circumference  of  thirty  leagues :  its  waters 
are  brackish  and  bituminous:  it  is  of  great  depth;  the 
shallowest  part  is  twenty  fathoms ;  the  soundings  are 
forty  fathoms,  forty-five,  seventy,  one  hundred  fathoms, 
and  in  other  parts  no  bottom  has  been  found  with  a  line 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  fathoms. 

"  The  natives  call  it  Bombon,  because  it  is  surrounded 
by  mountains  of  great  elevation,  more  than  one  thousand 
five  hundred  yards  above  the  sea-level,  and  it  is  so 
deep  that  they  liken  it  to  a  stalk  of  cane  or  bamboo,  in 
calling  it  Bombon  from  its  narrowness  and  depth.  .  .  . 
The  waters  of  this  lake  issue  by  a  small  river,  of  very 
little  breadth  nowadays,  whose  mouth  or  outlet  is  on 
the  southwest  of  the  lake,  and  it  runs  a  distance  of  two 
leagues  to  empty  into  the  sea,  on  whose  shore  now 
stands  the  Pueblo  of  Tael  and  the  hermitage  or  sanc 
tuary  of  Gasaisay.  .  .  .  The  situation  of  the  old 
Pueblo  de  Tael  was  nearly  on  the  bank  of  the  lake  :  it 
being  the  capital  of  the  province,  and  there  being  an 
oral  tradition  that  there  entered  '  Champanes'  or  '  Pon- 
tines'  of  forty  to  sixty  tons,  which  traded  between  it 
and  other  Pueblos  (habitations)  of  the  same  lake, — 


62  ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


such  as  the  old  Tanauan,  Tala  and  Bauan, — convinces 
me  that  the  river  was  not  only  of  greater  width,  but 
much  greater  depth,  communicating  with  the  sea  by  the 
Gulf  of  Balayan.  The  brackishness  of  the  waters  of  the 
lake  is  another  indication,  having  been  pent  up  by  the 
obstructions  caused  there  by  the  successive  eruptions  of 
the  volcano,  which  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  were  considerable, — especially  those  of  1736, 
1746,  and  1749  to  1750. 

"When  the  old  Pueblo  of  Tael  was  founded,  in  1575 
to  1576,  in  the  place  where  we  visited  its  ruins,  the 
volcano  caused  no  anxiety,  since  an  old  chronicle  of  the 
Augustines  says  that  on  the  skirts  or  declivities  of  the 
mountain  the  natives  had  fields  of  cotton,  sweet  potatoes, 
and  other  crops.  Toward  the  end  of  the  century  1600, 
the  volcano  already  began  to  exhibit  signs  of  an  eruption, 
throwing  out,  says  the  same  chronicle,  cinders  which 
destroyed  the  harvests  of  the  Indians.  It  also  relates 
that,  of  every  three  persons  in  the  island,  one  died, — with 
out  doubt  from  the  gases  caused  by  this.  About  this  time, 
says  the  chronicle,  were  formed  (and  became  visible) 
within  the  crater  two  holes,  one  full  of  sulphur,  and  the 
other  of  green  water,  as  at  the  present  day." 

Then  follow  very  graphic  accounts  of  the  great  erup 
tions  of  1716,  1746,  and  1754,  related  by  competent  eye 
witnesses,  with  very  ingenious  speculations  by  Dr.  Kane's 
friend,  the  friar  Azaola,  upon  the  phenomena  exhibited 
and  the  probable  connection  of  the  volcano  of  Tael  with 
the  earthquake  which  destroyed  Lima  in  1746,  and  the 


DESCENT    OF    THE    CRATER.  63 


shock  felt  in  1755  at  Lisbon,  and  through  Spain,  France, 
Germany,  Norway,  and  elsewhere, — all  interesting  enough 
to  call  for  the  publication  of  the  paper  entire,  but  only 
pertinent  to  our  purpose  as  an  introduction  to  the  adven 
ture  of  our  hero.* 

His  descent  into  the  Tael  was  a  feat  which  only  one 
European  had  attempted  before,  .and  he  without  success. 
Dr.  Kane  was  in  company  with  Baron  Loe,  a  relative  of 
Prince  Metternich.  They  had  an  escort  of  natives,  pro 
vided  by  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  neighboring  sanctuary 
of  Casaisay,  who  pointed  out  the  only  pathway  to  the 
brink  of  the  crater.  The  two  gentlemen  attempted  the 
descent  together,  but  they  soon  reached  a  projecting 
ledge,  from  which  farther  progress  was  absolutely  pre 
cipitous.  After  searching  in  vain  for  some  more  practi 
cable  route,  the  baron  gave  up  the  project,  and  united 
with  the  rest  of  the  party  in  efforts  to  persuade  the 
doctor  to  abandon  it  also.  But  that  was  out  of  the 
question.  It  was  his  temper  to  meet  difficulty  with 
proportioned  endeavor,  and  to  do  his  best  to  master  it 

*  A  correspondent  of  the  National  Era,  of  the  17th  of  September. 
1857,  who  was  at  Manilla  in  February,  and  made  a  trip  up  the  Pasig 
River  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Tael,  describes  the  water  issuing  from 
the  springs  at  Los  Banos,  on  the  southeastern  extremity  of  Lake  Bay, 
as  boiling  hot.  He  says,  "The  volcano  of  Tael,  whose  crater  was 
explored  by  Dr.  Kane,  is  twenty  miles  distant  from  Los  Banos,  and 
it  is  probable  that  the  subterranean  streams  which  form  these  boiling 
springs  pass  near  the  fires  which  communicate  with  the  burning  moun 
tain." 


64  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


before  he  yielded.  The  attendants  very  reluctantly 
gathered  from  the  jungle  a  parcel  of  bamboos,  and  fas 
tened  them  into  a  rude  but  strong  rope,  by  which,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  baron,  they  lowered  him  over  the 
brink.  He  touched  bottom  at  a  depth  of  more  than  two 
hundred  feet  from  the  platform  he  had  left,  and,  detach 
ing  himself  from  the  cord,  clambered  slowly  downward 
till  he  reached  the  smoking  lake  below  and  dipped  his 
specimen-bottles  under  its  surface. 

The  very  next  thing  in  order  was  to  get  back  again 
with  the  trophies  of  his  achievement.  This  he  used  to 
speak  of  as  the  only  dangerous  part  of  the  enterprise. 
The  scalding  ashes  gave  way  under  him  at  every  step  of 
his  return;  a  change  in  the  air-current  stifled  him  with 
sulphurous  vapors;  he  fell  repeatedly,  and,  before  he  got 
back  to  the  spot  where  his  rope  was  dangling,  his  boots 
were  so  charred  that  one  of  them  went  to  pieces  on  his  foot. 
He,  however,  succeeded  in  tying  the  bamboo  round  his 
waist,  and  was  hauled  up  almost  insensible.  When  he 
sank  exhausted  in  the  hands  of  his  assistants,  the  natives 
protested  that  the  Deity  of  the  Tael  had  avenged  himself 
for  the  sacrilege ;  but  the  baron,  who  had  less  faith  in  the 
divinity  of  brimstone,  dashed  him  with  water,  and  applied 
restoratives  brought  by  a  messenger  whom  he  had  de 
spatched  to  the  neighboring  hermitage.  The  remedies 
were  so  far  successful  that  he  could  be  carried  to  the 
halting-place  of  the  night  before.  He  had  saved  his  bottles 
of  sulphur-water,  which  he  sent  home  to  be  analyzed,  and 
with  them  some  fine  specimens  of  porphyritic  tufa. 


THE    TREATY  FORTNIGHT.  65 


But  this  was  not  quite  the  end  of  the  adventure.  As 
his  companion  and  himself  pursued  their  journeying, 
the  story  of  the  profanation  to  which  the  Tael  had  been 
subjected  went  before  them.  A  pygmy  mob  gathered 
angrily  around  them,  their  escort  dwindled  away  or 
took  part  with  their  assailants,  and,  before  they  were 
rescued  by  some  of  the  padres,  the  gentlemen  were  forced 
to  entrench  themselves  in  a  thicket  and  throw  up  a  dust 
with  their  revolvers. 

In  a  letter  of  the  doctor's,  dated  Whampoa,  August 
5  and  6,  1844,  he  gives  what  he  calls  "a  faithful 
recollecting  history  of ( the  treaty  fortnight.' "  Entire,  it 
would  fill  twenty  of  these  pages  :  we  can  afford  it  only 
the  space  of  three  or  four.  There  is  nothing  in  any 
published  page  of  his  that  is  richer  in  all  the  qualities 
of  his  style,  nothing  more  graphic  in  description,  more 
pictorial  in  presentment,  than  this  long  letter,  which,  he 
says  at  the  end,  he  has  "not  even  time  to  re-read." 
Chinese  ceremony,  costume,  architecture,  furniture,  man 
darins,  mob,  manners,  and  manoeuvres  are  rendered  as  if 
Ketsch  had  sketched  and  Diedrich  Knickerbocker  writ 
ten  them. 

In  the  extracts  which  follow,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
fun  of  the  thing  may  have  been  a  pleasure  pretty  fairly 
divided  between  the  two  parties.  But  our  object  is  to 
show  what  manner  of  man  the  writer  was  at  twenty-four, 
and  get  him  in  all-sorts  before  the  reader  in  his  own 
drawn  likeness. 


66  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


THE  TWO  COMMISSIONERS. 

"  Ki-ying  is  a  man ;  and,  lest  this  should  not  be  con 
sidered  sufficiently  definite,  I  would  say,  in  the  true  cant 
of  a  describer,  that  he  is  a  man  above  the  medium 
height,  stout  rather  than  corpulent,  with  an  easy  walk, 
and  a  stand  perfectly  unconstrained.  His  face,  Chinese 
enough  to  modify  the  tartar,  had  a  rather  sleepy  expres 
sion;  and  yet  the  smile,  though  nearly  sneering,  was 
animated  and  expressive.  The  eye  had  less  of  the  oval 
at  its  inner  canthus  than  a  southern  Chinese,  and  its 
pupil,  nearly  hidden  by  a  heavy  eyelid,  was  bright  and 
even  intellectual.  Such  was  the  blood-relation  of  the 
reigning  emperor  of  the  ( Flowery  Land/  the  successor 
of  Lin,  ex-viceroy  of  Canton,  and  martyr  to  a  power 
ful  moral  sense  unsustained  by  the  information  of 
the  age. 

"Except  by  powerful  proclamations  and  admirably 
written  protests,  poor  Lin  was,  in  accordance  with  the 
Chinese  policy  of  an  Imperial  commissioner,  aloof  from 
all  personal  intercourse  with  the  stranger.  With  Ki- 
ying  it  was  just  the  reverse.  He  had  played  dignity 
with  the  Portuguese,  and  baffled  them ;  played  the  jolly 
companion  with  Sir  Henry  Pottinger,  and  floored  him ; 
and  now,  fresh  from  a  drunken  frolic  at  the  Bogue,  he 
met  upon  terms  of  cold  yet  equal  and  gentlemanly 
courtesy  the  Hon.  Caleb  Gushing,  of  the  United  States 
of  North  America. 

"  One  feature  the  two  commissioners  had  in  common, — 


KI-YING    AND    GUSHING.  67 


an  artificial  one, — the  mustache.  With  the  American 
envoy  brown,  wiry,  truncated,  and  protruding ;  with  the 
Imperial  dignitary  gray,  waving,  unclipt,  and  .curling 
around  the  mouth.  The  one  a  wire  terrier,  the  other  a 
dew-lapped  mastiff.  Which  caught  the  rat  ?  You  shall 
see 

"Dinner  was  announced  by  a  single  servant,  who 
walked  up  to  Ki-ying,  and,  without  any  vulgar  obsequi 
ousness,  did  his  errand. 

"  Ki-ying,  very  much  in  the  same  style  with  which  a 
gentleman  of  the  old  school  would  take  by  the  hand  a 
youngish  lady,  led  in  Mr.  Gushing." 

THE  TWO  GENTLEMEN. 

"  Wong  led  in  Commodore  Parker ;  and,  before  I  leave 
these  two,  who  in  every  formal  visit  played  a  distin 
guished  part,  I  may  say  of  them,  that  Wong  was,  by 
universal  consent,  the  most  gentlemanly,  self-relying,  and 
handsomest  Chinaman  we  had  any  of  us  seen ;  and 
Commodore  Parker,  in  every  respect  his  superior,  sus 
taining  himself  fully,  wherever  he  might  be  placed,  with 
an  innate,  inherited  gentility,  which  extracted  marked 
respect  from  the  mandarins,  and  placed  his  American 
associates  instantly  at  their  ease.  An  opinion,  this,  only 
to  be  valued  because  derived  from  the  universal  voice  of 
the  American  community  in  China." 

THE  DINNER. 

The  pen  pauses  long  upon  the  decision,  but  it  must 
be  pretermitted, — all  but  the  summing  up. 


68  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


"  People  here  say  it  was  a  noble  feast,  and  many  an 
old  merchant  has  gone  into  affected  raptures  at  Ki-ying's 
bounty.  Your  son  can  only  borrow  Uncle  P.'s  quotation 
of  the  Frenchman's  climax,  which  marks,  with  pretty 
tolerable  accuracy,  the  seeing,  sitting,  and  rising  stages 
of  the  banquet : — <  Superbe,  magnifique,  pretty  well !' " 

THE  HEALTH-DRINKING. 

"  The  liquor,  warm  sam-shou,  a  distillation  from  rice, 
and,  as  Ki-ying  told  us,  flavored  with  a  Northern  grape 
most  highly  prized.  We  took  to  it  quite  naturally,  and 
the  dear  little  silver  oil-cans  from  which  it  guggled  were 
in  constant  requisition.  The  grape-flavor  was  remark 
able.  Had  we  not  known  otherwise,  we  should  have 
thought  it  a  Madeira  with  the  bouquet  of  Moselle :  it 
had  none  of  the  empyreumatic  taste  of  distilled  spirits. 

"  Health-drinking  with  the  Chinese  is  a  rather  serious 
matter.  First,  the  person  chin-chined,  or  complimented, 
grasps  the  stem  of  the  glass  with  both  hands,  and  stares 
smilingly  at  his  complimented  adversary.  Next,  they 
point  glasses  one  at  the  other,  and,  if  near,  they  hobnob, 
then  raise  slowly  and  drain  to  the  very  drop,  turning 
their  glasses  upside-down. 

"  Ki-ying  began  with  the  plenipotentiary ;  then  glided 
easily  to  Commodore  Parker,  who,  temperate  and  gentle 
manly  always,  raised  the  full  glass  to  his  lips,  smiled, 
and  emptied  it  in  his  plate, — thus  escaping  the  perils  of 
the  bumper  system. 

"  There  was  among  the  Chinese  gentleman  a  small- 


THE    ATTACHES.  69 


poxed  mandarin, — not  that  either  smallpox  or  mandarins 
are  scarce  in  China, — but  there  was  a  smallpoxed  man 
darin,  a  man  of  might :  he  sat  near  your  first-born.  When, 
in  the  routine  of  the  civilities,  all  the  mandarins  had  sam- 
shoued  the  higher  dignitaries  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  the 
aforesaid  mandarin  with  the  dotted  face  returned  to  one 
of  them  '  Chin-chin  you  wan,'  (wine.)  'With  pleasure;' 
and  over  went  the  glasses.  '  I  chin-chin  you  two  wan,' 
(two  wines.)  Tip,  and  over  went  the  glasses.  'I  chin- 
chin  you'  (holding  up  three  fingers)  ' wan'  The  respond 
ing  smile  was  more  sickly;  but,  too  gallant  to  flinch,  the 
challenge  was  met,  and  over  went  the  glasses  again, — 
about  the  eighth  already  emptied. 

"Seeing  this,  Webster,  myself,  and  some  others,  in 
revenge,  began  a  similar  game  with  Ki-ying.  It  was,  I 
mourn  to  say,  but  a  suspending  and  temporary  digres 
sion  from  the  general  epic  of  our  smallpoxed  hero. 
Once  more  he  filled  his  steaming  glass  and  chin-chined 
to  the  charge  again." 

"I  would  here  wander  from  the  Eichard  and  Saladin  of 
this  desperate  encounter,  and  turn  to  a  race  of  nobodies 
known  as  the  attaches.  These  devoted  men — those  who 
had  beards  and  those  who  hadn't — rallied  to  a  man  and 
to  a  boy.  The  duties  of  the  class  have  been,  like  them 
selves,  under-estimated.  In  the  case  of  our  embassy  to 
the  land  of  flowers,  they  had  to  dress  at  least  three  times 
a  day,  to  talk  with  the  light,  or  rather  heavy,  morning 
visitors,  to  drink  wine  with  the  supernumeraries  at  the 
legation-table,  and  even  to  answer  all  the  invitations, — 


70  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


previously  enclosing  them  in  scented  envelops,  and  seal 
ing  them  with  exceedingly  thin-sticked  sealing-wax.  And 
now  they  had  still  higher  duties.  Could  they  remain 
spectators  of  the  unequal  fight?  They  rallied  to  an 
individual.  Bristling  glasses  pointed  from  every  quarter 
at  the  smallpoxed  hero,  and  chin-chins  were  uttered  in 
every  gamutine  graduation  from  thorough-bass  to  treble. 
Reluctantly  he  forsook  his  higher  game,  and  turned 
upon  his  new  assailants.  The  battle  raged.  The  re 
prieved  nose  of  his  antagonist  of  the  duello  gradually 
regained  its  wonted  pinch,  and  the  indomitable  man 
darin,  resigning  for  a  time  his  incipient  victory,  pro 
ceeded  to  immolate  on  the  spot  three  of  the  presump 
tuous  attaches  whose  devotion  had  hurled  them  within 
the  vortex  of  his  civilities. 

"And  so  the  dinner  passed  away.  No  speeches  were 
made  with  a  more  direct  bearing  upon  the  commercial 
interests  under  negotiation,  than  a  well-expressed  remark 
from  our  chief  that  'this  biclie  de  mer  was  really  not  so 
bad,' — a  proposition  which  Ki-ying,  not  understanding, 
received  in  courteous  silence.  After  which  we  toasted 
the  Emperor  of  China,  hip-hipped  him,  hurraed  him, 
hiccupped  him,  and  withdrew." 

A  DANCE, 

Which  was  a  diplomatic  device.  The  device  having 
been  neatly  dodged  by  Ki-ying,  the  dance  had  to  come 
off,  nevertheless. 

"At  last,  on  the  25th  of  June,  another   interview 


A    DIPLOMATIC    DANCE.  71 


must  be  had  with  Ki-ying :  every  thing  was  ripe  for  it. 
Mr.  Gushing  did  not  personally  see  the  subordinates. 
How  should  the  interview  be  made  available  ?  for  it  was 
to  decide  much." 

"The  American  ladies!  What  have  the  American 
ladies  to  do  with  it?  Listen.  It  was  determined  that 
Ki-ying  should  again  Tiffin, — i.e.  in  the  language  "of  the 
Eastern  world,  take  a  dinner-luncheon;  that  the  ladies 
should  meet  him;  and  that  informally,  but  in  goodly 
numbers,  and  in  less  than  two  hours,  they  should  all  be 
there. 

"  Mr.  C.  gave  me  a  carte  blanche,  and,  with  the  character 
istic  modesty  which  I  inherit,  your  interesting  eldest  paid 
an  accidental  morning  call  to  all  Macao,  and  collected, 
for  the  good  of  his  country,  thirteen  ladies  and  a  child. 
Distinguished  services,  for  which  I  received  a  cholera 
morbus  and  the  thanks  of  Mr.  Gushing. 

"  O'Donnell  and  myself  presided.  Mr.  Gushing,  "Web 
ster,  Wong,  and  Ki-ying  were,  with  the  interpreters,  in 
close  confab  in  the  forward  parlor.  Strange,  how  little 
things  are  mixed  with  big:  that  trivial  ante-dinner 
interview  decided  the  entire  object  of  the  Chinese  lega 
tion  ! 

"  Dinner  now  one  hour  on  the  table :  thirteen  ladies 
with  seven  husbands  are  no  trifles  to  keep  amiable. 
'Why  didn't  Mr.  Gushing  show  them  Ki-ying  and  be 
done  with  it?'  Mrs.  E.  would  not  have  stood  it, 
(she  was  not  there ;)  and  as  for  my  friend  Mrs.  T.,  she 
thought  it  quite  rude.  Two  hours  passed  by:  small 


72  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


talk  entirely  run  out.  A  half-hour  more,  and  the  fold, 
whose  humble  office  of  diplomacy  it  had  been  mine  to 
bring  together,  were  on  an  ear-pricking  qui  vive.  They 
had  heard  from  James,  who  had  heard  from  the  Chong, 
who  had  heard  from  the  sentry,  that  Mr.  Gushing  had 
said,  'And  now  let's  go  to  Tiffin.'  They  were  all  on 
intelligent  tiptoe  for  the  exhibition  of  five  living  Chinese 
mandarins,  t  nobles  of  high  degree/ 

"The  'now  let's  go  to  Tiffin'  of  Mr.  C.  was  soon  fol 
lowed  by  a  familiar  sound  saboting  along  the  hall. 
The  two  Excellencies,  Wong,  Pownting-gua,  and  the 
three  other  attaches,  were  ushered  in  en  groupe.  The 
ladies  were  introduced,  and  after  some  interesting  con 
versation,  confined,  with  much  tact,  to  an  examination 
of  shawls,  necklaces,  dresses,  caps,  and  teeth,  Ki-ying 
was  taught  the  European  absurdity  which  converts  the 
arm  into  a  pothook.  Mrs.  P.  made  a  link  with  the  vice 
roy,  and,  the  minor  men  and  minor  maids  following  their 
example,  we  walked  in  to  dinner. 

"It  has  been  my  lot,  in  some  few  of  the  many  dinners 
which  I  have  of  late  attended,  to  be  a  seated  companion 
of  seated  statues :  and  so  we  were,  all  of  us,  at  the  well- 
remembered  Ki-ying  dinner  of  the  24th.  Our  attempts 
to  look  jovial  were  as  ludicrous  as  our  attempts  to  look 
comfortable;  yet,  occasionally  drinking  healths,  and  some 
times  inwardly  laughing  at  the  contortions  which  Cha- 
teau-Margaux  induced  in  Chinese  features,  we  sat  out 
our  sit. 

"Mr.  Cushing  was  anxious,  nervous,  not  quite  at  home; 


THE    YANKEES    CHECKMATED.  73 


Ki-ying  dignified;  Dr.  Bridgeman  chop-fallen  :  something 
had  gone  wrong. 

"It  had  been  settled,  in  that  ' ante-dinner  confab,'  for 
the  hope  of  visiting  the  Imperial  palace  and  seeing  the 
Majesty  of  the  Celestials  in  his  own  proper  person :  in 
Mr.  Webster's  phrase,  '  No  Pekin.'  Ki-ying  had  put  it 
squarely  to  Mr.  C.  '  Should  you  negotiate  with  me, 
Pekin  is  a  second  matter,  and  that  either  he  (Ki-ying) 
was  a  negotiating  envoy  and  Pekin  unnecessary,  or 
Pekin  the  primary  object,  and  he  (Ki-ying)  unnecessary.' 

"  Two  hours  after,  I  was  in  a  chartered  boat,  armed  to 
the  teeth,  and  threading  the  ladrone 
ton  Kiver.     I  was  a  freed  man."  *-.^    <H 


CHAPTEE  V. 

TESTIMONY  OF  THE  SECRETARY  AND  CHAPLAIN  OP  THE  MISSION — 
PROFESSIONAL  PRACTICE  IN  CHINA — RICE-FEVER  ATTACK — HOME 
WARD — BORNEO — SINGAPORE — SUMATRA — INTERIOR  INDIA — PERSIA 
AND  SYRIA — THE  NILE,  FROM  THE  SEA  TO  SENNAAR — PROFESSOR 
LEPSIUS — LIFE  AT  THEBES — EGYPTOLOGY — NILOTIC  DILUVIUM — 
BOAT- WRECK — SKIRMISH  WITH  BEDOUINS — ATTACK  OF  THE  PLAGUE. 

THE  negotiations  terminated,  the  frigate  left  her 
station  at  Macao,  homeward  bound,  in  August,  1844. 
Dr.  Kane,  not  intending  to  return  with  his  companions, 
had  resigned  his  post  of  physician  to  the  legation,  and 
was  even  meditating  a  resignation  from  the  navy,  in 
which  up  to  this  time  he  had  been  an  unpaid,  though 
otherwise  a  kindly-requited,  laborer.  It  is  believed  that 
he  intended  to  practise  his  profession  in  China  long 
enough  to  put  himself  in  funds  for  a  long  run  of  travel 
in  the  East.  Fifteen  months'  indulgence  and  enjoyment 
through  a  range  so  large  and  rich  as  he  had  made  it, 
fully  revealed  his  destiny  to  him;  and  all  other  occupa 
tion  must  now  be  only  subsidiary  to  this  leading  object 
of  his  life. 
74 


TESTIMONY    OF    MR.   WEBSTER.  75 


What  we  have  been  able  to  gather  of  the  incidents  of 
his  sojourn  in  China,  after  the  departure  of  his  friends, 
will  be  given  when  we  have  first  secured  the  brief  but 
valuable  contributions  to  these  recollections  made  by 
two  of  his  associates  in  the  diplomatic  voyage. 

Fletcher  Webster,  Esq.,  was  secretary  to  the  legation. 
From  his  letters,  in  which  he  intended  rather  to  assist 
than  to  answer  our  inquiries,  we  take  a  few  helpful 
extracts : — 

"  I  first  met  Dr.  Kane,  as  physician  to  our  mission  to 
China,  on  board  the  Brandywine,  at  Bombay,  in  Novem 
ber,  1843.  I  was  secretary  to  the  mission,  and  an  inter 
course  sprang  up  between  us  which  rapidly  grew  into  a 
warm  friendship. 

"Dr.  Kane  had,  I  think,  just  returned  from  a  trip 
into  the  interior  of  India  as  far  as  Poonah  and  the 
cave-temples  at  Karli,  which  he  had  an  opportunity  to 
make  while  the  frigate  lay  in  port  waiting  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  Gushing.  I  was  at  once  struck  by  the  activity 
and  energy  of  the  doctor,  who  was  never  for  a  moment 
idle,  or  seemed  enervated  by  the  climate ;  and  the  officers 
of  the  ship  remarked  that  he  could  never  keep  quiet.  .  . 

"We  left  Bombay  for  Ceylon;  and  we  had  hardly 
touched  at  Colombo  before  he  was  off  on  an  expedition 
to  Kandy,  the  former  capital-city  of  the  island,  some 
sixty  miles  distant  in  the  interior. 

"  On  our  long  voyage  from  Ceylon  to  Macao  I  had  an 

opportunity  of  learning  Dr.  Kane  well Highly 

accomplished  as  a  physician  and  surgeon,  he  seemed  to 


76  ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


think  very  lightly  of  his  acquirements  in  the  profession, 
and  to  be  continually  looking  forward  to  something 
beyond. 

"  He  was  very  fond  of  the  exact  sciences,  and  was  an 
indefatigable  student, — evidently  annoyed  when  not  en 
gaged  in  something,  and  always  restless  unless  busy, — 
for  hours  in  the  state-room  buried  in  mathematics,  and 
then  next  seen  at  the  mast-head  or  over  the  vessel's  side. 

"  On  our  reaching  Macao,  Dr.  K.  and  the  rest  of  us 
established  ourselves  on  shore;  and,  while  waiting  the 
slow  proceedings  of  the  Chinese  authorities,  he  made 
flying  visits  to  Hong-Kong  and  Canton,  returned  to 
examine  the  environs  of  Macao  and  the  islands  in  the 
harbor, — excursions  always  attended  with  a  good  deal  of 
personal  danger, — and  had  explored  the  whole  town 
itself  before  we,  of  slower  motions,  had  commenced.  .  .  . 

"He  remained  but  a  short  time  with  us  at  Macao, 
but  on  leave  of  absence  went  to  Luconia.  He  landed  at 
Manila,  and  thence  preceded  entirely  across  the  island 
to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  saw  all  its  greatest  curi 
osities,  and,  on  his  return  to  Macao,  established  himself 
as  a  physician  at  Whampoa  Eeach,  in  the  Canton  Eiver, 
where  he  soon  acquired  an  extensive  practice  among 
the  shipping  which  usually  lies  there  in  great  num 
bers.  When  I  left  Macao,  in  August,  1844,  he  was 
still  there 

"Dr.  Kane  was  a  person  of  very  nice  modesty, — not 
given  to  much  talking,  and  not  eminently  social, — that  is, 
as  I  found  him.  In  social  intercourse,  although  agree- 


TESTIMONY  OF  REV.  GEORGE  JONES.     77 


able  and  very  bright  when  called  out,  he  still  seemed 
to  be  thinking  of  something  above  and  beyond  what 
was  present. 

"  To  his  great  scientific  taste  and  knowledge,  and  his 
energy  and  resolution,  he  added  a  courage  of  the  most 
dauntless  kind.  The  idea  of  personal  apprehension 
seemed  never  to  cross  his  mind.  He  was  ambitious,  not 
of  mere  personal  distinction,  but  of  achievements  useful 
to  mankind  and  promotive  of  science." 

The  Kev.  Geo.  Jones,  of  Brooklyn,  chaplain  to  the 
China  mission,  speaks  of  him,  as  he  knew  him  on  the 
voyage  and  at  Macao,  thus  : — 

"  He  was  then  very  youthful-looking,  with  a  smooth 
face,  a  florid  complexion,  very  delicate  form,  smaller 
than  the  common  size,  but  with  an  elastic  step,  a  bright 
eye,  and  a  great  enthusiasm  in  manner,  which  also  mixed 
itself  with  his  conversation.  He  seemed  to  be  all  hope, 
all  ardor,  and  his  eye  appeared  already  to  take  in  the 
whole  world  as  his  own.  He  was  very  gentlemanly  in 
his  appearance  and  conduct.  His  conversation  showed 
a  great  deal  of  such  intelligence  as  is  gained  from  books, 
and  a  great  desire  to  learn  on  all  topics.  I  soon  found 
he  was  also  ready  and  skilful  with  his  pencil  as  well  as 
quick  in  the  use  of  his  pen.  All  the  elements  of  the 
subsequently  distinguished  man  were  there,  only  waiting 
to  be  brought  into  use. 

"  I  had  very  good  opportunities  for  observing  him,  as 
I  was  attached  to  the  ship  as  chaplain,  and  as  the  letter 
of  introduction,  (from  our  mutual  friend  Elisha  Chauncey, 


78  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,)  together  with  some  affinities  in 
taste,  brought  us  frequently  together  during  the  voyage, 
and  subsequently  to  our  arrival  in  the  China  Sea.  I 
was  often  struck  with  his  simplicity  of  manner;  for, 
with  his  good  sense,  he  had  often  also,  in  worldly  things, 
almost  the  simplicity  of  a  child.  This  led  him  to  be 
undervalued  by  those  who  could  not  see  the  strength  of 
character  and  energy  that  underlaid  the  outside  cover 
ing,  but  which  showed  themselves  whenever  any  thing 
was  to  be  done,  any  enterprise  to  be  undertaken,  or 
knowledge  to  be  gained.  All  this  shone  out  whenever 
our  ship  touched  at  any  port;  for  he  was  then  every 
where,  with  an  activity  that  seemed  to  take  no  rest. 
His  journals,  I  suppose,  will  show  all  this.  His  visit  to 
the  interior  of  Luzon  is  especially  remarkable ;  but  at 
Bib,  at  Bombay,  and  at  Ceylon  he  visited  every  thing 
that  was  worth  seeing,  often  in  distant  excursions  from 
the  ship. 

"  His  attachments  were  very  strong,  and  his  labors  to 
benefit  those  he  took  an  interest  in  were  self-sacrificing 
and  enduring.  He  was  very  unselfish.  His  morals,  I 
believe,  were  good,  and  his  religious  sentiments,  though 
now  standing  for  the  first  time  the  test  of  a  com 
mingling  with  the  world,  stood  it  very  well." 

All  that  we  know  of  his  fortunes  in  China  for  the 
succeeding  six  months  is,  that,  while  engaged  in  very 
successful  practice  as  a  physician  and  surgeon  at  Wham- 
poa,  he  was  stricken  down  at  the  close  of  1844  with  the 
rice-fever.  Mr."  Eitchie,  of  Canton,  took  him  to  his 


BORNEO  —  SUMATRA. 


hospitable  home,  where  he  was  nursed  with  the  kindest 
care.  It  was  a  hard  struggle;  but  the  life-power  had  the 
mastery.  This  illness  broke  up  his  plan  of  professional 
practice  there,  and  he  resolved  to  come  home. 

Mr.  Dent,  the  son  of  a  British  official  at  Madras,  was 
also  in  delicate  health,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  two 
should  take  the  overland  route  for  Europe  together. 
They  sailed  in  January,  1845.  The  next  month  they 
were  at  Singapore,  a  flourishing  commercial  settlement 
belonging  to  the  British,  situated  on  an  island  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  Malacca,  and,  as 
nearly  as  may  be,  under  the  Equator.  In  his  "First 
Arctic  Expedition"  he  speaks  of  Borneo  and  Sumatra  as 
two  of  the  places  in  the  East  which  he  had  visited.  It 
is  probable  that  while  at  Singapore  he  availed  himself 
of  the  facilities  afforded  by  this  great  emporium  of 
the  trade  of  these  seas  for  excursions  east  and  west 
to  these  two  islands.  He  was  at  Upernavick,  on  the 
west  coast  of  Greenland,  distant  six  years  of  time, 
seventy-three  of  north  latitude  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  of  west  longitude,  when  one  of  those  world 
wide  contrasts  which  were  so  frequent  in  his  experi 
ences  enlivened  the  relish  of  a  dwarfed  radish  with  the 
remembered  "mango  of  Luzon  and  the  mangostine  of 
Borneo,  the  cherimoya  of  Peru,  the  pine  of  Sumatra,  and 
the  seckel-pear  of  Schuylkill  Meadows;"  and  he  journal 
ized  his  enjoyment  of  the  first  fresh  vegetable  he  had 
seen  for  a  year,  and  gave  us  our  data — all  that  we 
have — for  this  stage  of  his  Oriental  journey. 


80  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


From  Singapore  they  crossed  the  Bay  of  Bengal  to 
Ceylon,  and  thence  to  the  Anglo-Indian  peninsula. 

Some  months  were  spent  in  a  tour  of  exploration 
through  the  interior  of  India,  including  the  ascent  of 
the  Himalaya  Mountains.  The  Zemindar  Dwakanoth 
Tagore,  by  courtesy  styled  Prince  Tagore,  one  of  the 
wealthiest  of  the  native  nobles  of  Calcutta,  was  preparing 
for  a  visit  to  the  court  of  Queen  Victoria;  and,  Mr. 
Dent's  health  having  been  so  far  restored  as  to  allow  a 
change  of  their  plan  of  travelling  homeward  together, 
Dr.  Kane  passed,  with  his  consent,  into  the  prince's 
suite.  The  interval  before  the  party  started  for  Alexan 
dria  was  passed  in  travelling  wherever  historical  memo 
rials  or  scientific  research  invited  him.  He  had  every 
facility  that  the  ample  means  of  the  prince,  most 
generously  dispensed,  could  supply;  but  we  have  no 
record  of  his  Indian  explorations. 

He  reached  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  in  April, 
1845,  and,  bidding  a  reluctant  good-by  to  his  friend  and 
patron,  under  whose  safe-conduct  he  had  traversed 
Persia  and  Syria,  he  bent  his  way  to  the  regions  of  the 
Upper  Nile. 

Pasha  Mehemet  Ali,  the  politic,  if  not  the  liberal, 
reformer  of  Egypt,  to  whom  the  doctor  was  introduced 
by  Prince  Tagore,  gave  him  a  special  firman  for  his  pro 
tection  ;  and  under  the  auspices  of  the  Egyptian  Asso 
ciation  of  Grand  Cairo,  which  had  elected  him  a  member, 
he  hoisted  the  American  flag  and  headed  his  little  boat 


AT    THEBES.  81 


toward  the  Pyramids,  and  Thebes,  and  the  second 
Cataract. 

A  letter  dated  at  Thebes,  May  2,  1845,  covering  half 
a  dozen  pages  foolscap,  contains  all  the  memoranda  of 
his  Egyptain  tour  which  we  possess.  Our  extracts  must 
serve  for  its  history,  with  the  exception  of  a  character 
istic  adventure,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  other 
authorities.  He  writes  : — 

"  I  have  been  for  some  days  (three)  wandering  about 
in  a  state  of  amazement,  unable  profitably  to  see  any 
thing.  Perhaps  it  may  to  you  seem  an  absurdity ;  but 
there  is  something  so  vast  in  the  dimensions  of  these 
colossal  ruins  that  I  cannot  embrace  details;  and,  indeed, 
I  almost  fear  that  I  shall  leave  Thebes  without  a 
definite  impression  of  any  thing  but  magnitude. 

"  My  paper  is  resting  upon  the  enormous  foot  of  one 
of  the  Osiride  columns  in  the  Memnonium;  my  break 
fast,  yet  awaiting  me,  is  on  the  other.  Forty-eight 
columns  are  behind  me,  grouped  around  my  bed;  and  the 
roof  which  they  support  throws  its  shadow  upon  this 
respectable  epistle.  I  have  taken  lodgings  in  the  palace- 
temple  of  Sesostris. 

"  Thanks  to  Dwakanoth  Tagore  and  the  very  meagre 
influence  of  my  China  title,  I  have  been  elected  a 
member  of  the  Egyptian  society, — a  somewhat  dubious 
honor,  which  has  converted  my  boat  into  a  library,  and 
condemned  me  to  a  fee  of  two  pounds  six.  It  has,  how 
ever,  enabled  me  to  wade  through  the  complicated  trash 
of  such  men  as  Stevens,  and  to  read,  with  the  country 


82  ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


itself  for  my  atlas,  the  noble  labors  of  Cailliaud  and 
Wilkinson. 

"  This  is  very  delightful  for  a  sight-seer,  but  very 
mortifying  to  an  ignorant  man  like  myself,  for  my 
boundary  is  fixed  and  limited  as  my  own  information. 
Nothing  can  be  more  exciting  than  the  intelligent  study 
of  Egyptian  antiquities. 

"  Since  Champollion  gave  tongues  to  stones,  by  clothing 
these  wonderful  remains  with  the  interest  of  a  recorded 
history,  Egypt  has  undergone  a  complete  revolution.  It 
is  no  longer  a  place  for  sage  Mr.  Oldbucks  and  ingenious 
gentlemen  of  the  Bill  Stumps  class.  It  is  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  a  great  library  of  monumental  history, 
where  all  that  is  wanted  is  the  patient  labor  of  a  reader. 

"  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  I  have  had  a  corespond- 
ing  acquaintance  (now  ,a  personal  one)  with  Professor 
Lepsius,  of  Berlin  and  Rome.  ...  I  met  him,  seated 
cross-legged  in  the  great  temple  of  Karnak,  supping 
coffee  and  copying  hieroglyphics.  He  is  at  the  head  of 
the  great  Prussian  commission;  and  it  gratified  me  not  a 
little,  during  our  long  talks,  to  find  that  he  knew  the 
Recording  Secretary  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society;  and  it  required  a  very  tolerable  strain  of  my 
tolerably  plastic  countenance  to  sustain  myself  in  the 
scientific  position  which,  by  reflection  or  inheritance,  I 
was  supposed  to  occupy. 

"  I  dare  say  that  Mr.  Gliddon  has  crammed  you  suffi 
ciently  to  make  my  own  literal  descriptions  useless ;  or, 
if  he  has  not,  I  yield  me  to  mosquitos  and  this  awful 


PROFESSOR    LEPSIUS.  83 


khampsin,  and  spare  my  imagination.  As,  however, 
my  portfolio  contains  but  two  sheets  of  paper,  and  as 
I  have  determined  to  fill  them  both,  I  deliver  my  brain 
by  an  easy  labor,  giving  you,  as  I  had  it  repeated  in 
frequent  conversations,  the  outline  of  the  labors  of  the 
great  Prussian  commission." 

An  exact  report  of  the  expedition  of  Lepsius  and  his 
suite,  with  their  labors,  journeyings,  and  dates,  from 
July,  1842,  till  the  date  of  this  letter,  follows. 

It  is  filled  with  valuable  information  which  was  news 
then;  but  it  is  replaced  now  by  the  publications  of 
this  greatest  of  all  the  Egyptologists,  in  works  familiar 
to  all  the  students  of  archaeology. 

Mingled  with  the  narrative  of  the  journeyings  of  the 
commission,  the  doctor  gives  an  occasional  intimation 
of  his  own.  "  Lepsius  left  the  Fayoum,  (a  most  interest 
ing  region,  which  I  entered  at  Benisouef,)  .  .  .  passed 
through  the  great  (Nubian)  desert  to  Abou  Ahmed  and 
Berber,  a  journey  of  twelve  days,  with  fifty-two  camels. 
.  .  .  Accompanied  by  his  chaplain,  he  ascended  the  Blue 
Nile — the  scene  of  poor  Bruce's  toil— as  far  as  Seso,  in 
13°  north  latitude,  and  rejoined  his  expedition  on  the 
5th  April,  '45,  at  the  pyramids  of  Meroe. 

"  My  own  journeying  in  the  desert  was  not  nearly  so 
extended."  Yet  he  elsewhere  says  that  he  had  "  eaten 
locusts  in  Sennaar,"  as  far  south,  if  not  otherwise  as 
extensive,  "  and  if,  as  I  am  nearly  determined  upon,  I 
make  my  detour  from  Esneh  (Upper  Egypt)  to  the  oasis- 
wells  and  Abydos,  this  poor,  scabby,  sun-burnt  economist 


84  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


will  ride  on  top  of  a  water-skin,  with  a  retinue  of  two 
dromedaries  instead  of  fifty-two 

"From  this  moment  (the  professor's  return  from  the 
Blue  Nile)  he  rested,  or  rather  labored,  at  Thebes :  the 
great  temple  of  Karnak  became  his  lodging-house,  and 
Joseph's  sanctuary  his  kitchen ;  and  here,  dear  father,  I, 
supping  coffee  in  the  temple  of  Sesostris,  would  scribble 
notes  to  my  Karnak  friend  on  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
or  pay  running  visits  to  a  couple  of  Germans  who 
lodged  up  the  hill  in  an  excavated  tomb. 

"  My  Thebes  life  is  a  very  wild  one  :  I  am  in  native 
dress,  with  a  beard  so  long  that  I  have  to  tuck  it  in. 
My  lodging  is  on  the  hot  ground,  and  I  walk-on  an 
average  twenty-six  miles  a  day.  Cartilaginous  pigeons 
— delicious  young  squabs — form  the  basis  of  a  meal  or 
series  of  meals,  which,  numbering  five  per  diem,  com 
mence  at  four  A.M.  and  end  at  nine  in  the  evening, 
coffee  being  the  great  diluent, — tea  without  sugar." 

Sitting  in  the  temple  of  Rameses  II.,  whose  reign 
Lepsius  puts  in  the  fourteenth  century  before  Christ,  or 
about  the  time  when  Jael  the  wife  of  Heber  drove  a 
nail  into  the  temple  of  Sisera,  and  nearly  two  centuries 
before  Samson  pulled  down  the  temple  of  Dagon  upon  the 
aristocracy  of  the  Philistines,  it  was  but  natural  for  him 
to  give  himself  up  for  a  while  to  the  wonderment  of  that 
eternity  past  which  bewilders  the  Egyptian  traveller; 
but  the  brain  that  would  not  freeze  at  the  North  Pole 
did  not  melt  at  Thebes,  and  he  came  away  as  little 
intoxicated  by  the  thirty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and 


EGYPTOLOGY.  85 


twenty-five  years  of  the  Egyptian  dynasties  which  ended 
three  hundred  and  fifty-nine  years  before  the  Christian 
era  began,  as  if  he  intended  to  wait  till  Lepsius,  and 
Wilkinson,  and  Gliddon  should  agree  with  themselves 
and  each  other,  within  a  few  hundreds  of  years  at  least, 
about  the  date  of  the  fourth  dynasty. 

His  deference  for  the  authorities  seems  to  have  secured 
his  assent  to  the  date  2300  B.C.  for  Menes  the  first  Pha 
raoh;  but  he  turns  from  the  chaos  of  chronology  and 
cosmogony  with  instinctive  avidity  to  the  terra  firma 
facts  of  time's  changes  which  lay  before  him  and  practi 
cally  concerned  his  specialty  of  study  and  enterprise. 

"  One  of  the  most  remarkable  discoveries  is,  as  to  the 
physical  conformation  of  the  old  mother-river's  capacious 
offspring, — the  Valley  of  the  Nile.  Mention  this  to  Mr. 
Kogers,  unless  his  correspondence  may  have  preceded 
you.  Lepsius  paid  particular  attention  to  some  hiero 
glyphic  inscriptions  on  the  rocks  at  the  narrow  defile  of 
Semna;  for,  in  a  country  as  old  as  this,  antiquity  is 
engraved  upon  antiquity,  and  the  scribbling  inscriptions 
of  travellers  often  give  information  of  the  highest  value. 
He  saw  here  the  highest  rise  of  the  Nile,  at  that  place, 
during  eighteen  different  years  under  the  government  of 
Menes  and  his  successors,  from  which  we  learn  that 
nearly  two  thousand  two  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
or  four  thousand  and  forty-five  years  ago,  the  average 
level  of  the  Nile  at  that  place  was  twenty-two  feet  higher 
than  at  present ;  while  below  the  first  cataract  at  Silsilis, 
as  appears  from  the  grottoes  in  the  rocks,  the  level  of  the 


86  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


river  was  at  least  three  feet,  and  probably  more,  below 
its  present  condition. 

"  This  struck  me  as  especially  curious,  for  my  own 
observations  at  Manfalout,  (27°  north  latitude,)  and  the 
excellent  conclusions  drawn  from  the  great  Colossi  of 
Thebes,  prove  with  almost  absolute  certainty  that  the 
Valley  of  the  Nile  at  Luxor  is  nearly  seven  feet  higher 
than  at  the  date  of  their  construction.  .  .  . 

"  The  changes  which  have  occurred  in  this  belt  are  of 
the  highest  interest;  for,  after  all,  whether  it  be  the 
coast-line  of  the  Delta,  or  the  beautiful  Fayoum,  or  the 
narrow  strip  which  leaves  by-gone  cities  crumbling  in 
the  encroaching  sands,  the  source  is  the  same :  the 
great  mother  scatters  her  blessings  and  her  curses  at 
each  inundation,  and  a  fixed  rate  of  increase  or  decrease 
would  be  of  practical  importance  almost  beyond  calcu 
lation. 

"Your  society  will  be  the  gainer  if  I  succeed  in 
passing  my  collection  at  Alexandria.  I  have  two  royal 
ovals  in  colors  as  fresh  as  my  Chinese  miniatures;  and 
yet  their  groundwork  is  the  limestone  wall  of  an 
excavated  sepulchre,  and  the  artist  some  Pharaonic 
worthy  of  three  thousand  years'  antiquity.  The  statue 
trunk,  coming,  as  it  does,  from  Tel-el-Amaina,  will  be  of 
great  interest." 

The  accident  by  which  his  journals  and  baggage  were 
lost  is  thus  related  : — 

"  I  wrote  from  Gizneh  by  special  messenger,  informing 
you  of  the  melancholy  loss  of  my  baggage.  Sympathize 


BOAT-WRECK.  87 


with  this  poor,  very  poor,  devil,  who,  alone  in  a  sandy 
desert,  rejoices  in  three  shirts,  a  pair  of  slippers,  and  a 
boat-cloak.  I  rehearse  in  duplicate  its  details. 

"  Dendera  is  but  six  miles  from  the  ancient  Tentyrus, 
'a  pleasant  walk,  which  intending  to  enjoy  before  the 
sun  heated  the  sands,  induced  me  to  bivouack  on  a  slope 
of  the  river-bank,  in  order  to  start  in  the  small  hours 
of  the  morning.  Preparatory  to  a  house-cleaning  during 
my  absence,  I  drew  the  boat  upon  the  land-slope,  and 
then,  as  was  my  custom,  placed  my  baggage  on  a  plat 
form  of  boards, — one  end  of  which  rested  on  the  shore, 
the  other,  dry  and  comfortable,  on  the  gunwale  of  the 
boat. 

"  My  pilot  laid  his  huge  carcass  over  this  little 
isthmus  of  household  goods;  and  your  son,  cloaked  and 
carpeted,  went  to  sleep  upon  the  sands.  In  the  morn 
ing — Lord  help  me ! — I  was  the  first  to  rise ;  but  boat, 
platform,  baggage,  all  was  gone.  Nothing  met  my  eyes 
but  sleeping  boatmen,  naked  wind-drifts,  and  complete 
desolation. 

"  I  cannot  fill  up  an  old  woman's  letter,  of  the  how 
and  the  why  and  the  when, — how  I  felt  and  what  I 
did.  All  that  I  can  say  is  that  my  boat  was  recovered 
two  miles  down  the  stream,  and  that,  as  far  as  my  mys 
tified  senses  can  account  for  the  affair,  the  rapid  current, 
aided  by  a  partial  quicksand,  undermined  my  boat, 
tilted  the  side  weighed  down  by  my  trunks,  noiselessly 
canted  them  into  the  stream,  and  then,  relieved  of  the 
weight,  floated  silently  away. 


88  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


"  I  am  heart-sick  at  this  loss.  Nothing  in  the  great 
scale  of  ups  and  downs  which  I  have  experienced,  you 
would  say;  but  most  depressing  in  its  consequences. 
Only  one  thing  remains  to  comfort  me;  and  that  is, 
that,  taught  by  persecution  a  little  foresight,  I  had  pre 
viously  sent  to  England  my  best  clothes  and — thank 
Heaven ! — my  diplomas.  But  still  my  list  of  losses  is 
more  than  enough  to  try  my  well-tried  purse  and  better- 
tried  philosophy. 

"The  idle  hours  of  the  sleepy  Nile  I  had  devoted 
to  the  arrangement  of  my  collection,  papers,  &c.  They 
are  all  gone :  even  Dr.  Morton's  skulls  have  sunk  in 
the  quicksands.  One  thing  more,  (it  ends  my  story: 
how  shall  I  say  it !)  I  have  lost  my  watch.  Kemaining 
are  dear  mother's  battered  writing-desk,  containing  my 
business  correspondence  and  my  money,  my  legation 
sword,  valued  for  old  associations,  and  a  carpet-bag  of 
shirts.  No  jackets,  no  boots,  and  no  pantaloons." 

"Whether  this  was  the  true,  or,  at  least,  the  whole 
explanation  of  his  loss,  he  had  afterward  good  reason  to 
doubt.  Some  days  after  it  occurred,  as  he  was  landing 
from  his  boat,  borne  through  the  water  on  the  shoulders 
of  his  interpreter,  he  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  watch-chain 
suspended  round  the  fellow's  neck,  and  he  succeeded, 
after  a  severe  tussle  and  a  good  ducking,  in  recovering  a 
part  of  the  chain,  and  with  it  the  watch  itself.  The 
rascal  made  his  escape  with  the  rest  of  his  plunder, 
which  most  probably  amounted  to  all  that  he  coveted 
of  the  swamped  cargo. 


ATTACK    OF    THE    PLAGUE.  89 


He  had  been  before  this  wounded  in  the  leg  in  a 
melee  with  a  party  of  Bedouins  who  attempted  to 
rob  him,  and  was  glad  on  his  arrival  at  Alexandria 
to  put  himself  under  surgical  treatment.  But  a  new 
visitation  awaited  him  here.  He  had  an  attack  of  the 
plague;  and  during  his  illness,  which  nearly  cost  him 
his  life,  the  collections  which  he  had  made  and  sent 
down  the  river  from  time  to  time  by  his  occasional 
opportunities,  were  dissipated  and  lost. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

STATUE  OF  MEMNON — THE  ASCENSION,  BISK,  ESCAPE — GREECE  TRA 
VERSED  AFOOT — GERMANY — SWITZERLAND — PARIS— SURGICAL  PRAC 
TICE  IN  THE  EAST — A  LETTER — ITALY — ENGLAND — ALL  THE  WORLD 
OVER — A  WINTER  AT  HOME — REPUGNANCE  TO  "THE  SERVICE" — 
WAITING  ORDERS — MIS-SENT — COAST  OF  GUINEA — DAHOMEY — PAT 
TERN  OF  A  KING BIRTHDAY  ODE — PREROGATIVE  ROYAL — MAGNIFI 
CENCE — THE  SLAVE-TRADE — HUMAN  SACRIFICE — THE  COAST-FEVER 


BEFORE  Dr.  Kane  could  take  his  departure  "  from  the 
river  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth,"  it  must  needs  be  that 
some  adventure  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  in  keep 
ing  with  the  wonders  of  the  region,  should  signalize 
his  visit. 

The  volcano  of  Tael  had  tempted  him  to  brave  the 
perils  of  its  descent  by  the  mysteries  of  nature  hidden 
away  in  its  depths ;  and  here  the  towering  wonders  of 
human  art,  as  tempting  for  the  hidden  things  which 
they  expose  to  dubious  and  difficult  research,  were  all 
around  him.  An  army  of  antiquaries  were  busy  disin 
terring  the  mummy-history  of  Egypt  from  the  ruins  at 
their  feet,  and  deciphering  the  hieroglyphics  every- 
90 


STATUE    OF    MEMNON.  91 


where  within  easy  reach  of  inspection.  They  brought 
science  and  patience  to  their  task,  and  sat  "  cross-legged" 
at  their  work.  "Was  there  any  margin  of  exploration 
among  these  labyrinthine  ruins  and  colossal  monu 
ments  for  an  athlete  who,  at  the  risk  of  his  neck,  might 
wring  the  heart  out  of  some  mystery  beyond  their 
daring  ?  We  shall  see. 

The  statue  of  Memnon,  of  marvellous  fame,  is  the 
northeastern  of  the  two  colossal  granite  figures  which 
stand  on  the  plain  near  Medinet-Abou,  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Nile,  opposite  Luxor  and  Karnac.  It  is  ascer 
tained  to  be  the  musical  statue  which  greeted  the  sun 
rise,  by  the  multitude  of  inscriptions  that  testify  its 
miraculous  powers  and  the  credulity  of  the  witnesses. 

It  stands  now  in  the  category  of  obsolete  miracles ; 
but  it  is  still  a  wonder  that  needs  not  the  help  of  a 
superstitious  faith  to  secure  admiration. 

Professor  Lepsius  measured  it  in  February,  1845,  and 
in  his  Denkmaler,  (Monuments,)  published  in  1850,  we 
have  a  splended  engraving  of  the  statue.  From  these 
sources — "  the  Denkmaler"  and  his  "  Discoveries  in 
Egypt" — our  description  is  drawn. 

The  statue. is  credited  by  the  savans  to  Amunophis 
III.,  whom  Gliddon,  following  Birch,  places  in  the 
eighteenth  Theban  dynasty,  1692  B.C.  ;  but  Lepsius  has 
since  transferred  him  to  the  seventeenth,  an  earlier 
dynasty,  and  dated  his  reign  in  1530  B.C.,  or  one  hun 
dred  and  sixty-two  years  later, — an  instance  of  the 
uncertainties  of  Egyptian  chronology,  but  which  in  no 


92  ELISHA    KENT   KANE. 


wise  affects  the  points  with  which  we  are  now  con 
cerned. 

It  is  in  the  sitting  posture,  and  measures  from  head 
to  foot,  without  the  tall  head-dress  it  once  wore,  forty- 
five  and  a  half  feet  in  perpendicular  height.  For  its 
entire  height  above  the  level  of  the  temple  the  base 
must  be  added,— thirteen  feet  seven  inches,  of  which 
about  three  feet  is  hidden  by  a  surrounding  step. 
Thus  the  statue  originally  stood,  or  sat,  nearly  sixty 
feet  (perhaps  seventy  with  the  head-dress)  above  the 
plain. 

The  measurements  which  specially  interest  us  are 
those  which  are  obtained  by  estimating  the  proportions 
observed  in  symmetrical  statuary,  and  by  calculations 
made  upon  the  scale  of  the  portrait  given  in  the  Denk- 
maler,  the  results  of  both  methods  agreeing  exactly. 

The  height  from  the  sole  of  the  foot  to  the  top  of  the 
knee  is  twenty  feet.  The  breadth  of  the  base  or  block 
on  which  the  throne  and  the  feet  of  the  figure  sit  is 
twenty,  and  the  length  thirty-six  feet,  nearly  covered 
by  the  sitting  statue. 

Dr.  Kane,  observing  from  below  a  tablet  or  lapstone 
which  had  never  been  specially  described,  suspected  that 
its  under-surface  might  have  hieroglyphic  inscriptions 
of  value,  and  determined  upon  an  inspection.  This 
could  be  accomplished  only  by  ascending  from  the  base 
between  the  legs  to  the  point  to  be  examined;  and  that 
must  be  done  by  climbing, — a  feat  as  yet  unattempted, 
and,  therefore,  just  the  thing  for  him  to  undertake. 


ASCENSION RISK.  93 


But,  as  the  leg  at  the  calf  is  about  four  and  a  half  feet 
in  diameter  and  thirteen  in  circumference,  to  climb  it, 
as  one  grasps  the  bole  of  a  tree  in  his  arms  to  ascend  it, 
was  clearly  impracticable.  There  was  but  one  way  of 
working  his  way  up  to  the  knees,  which  was  by  bracing 
his  back  or  neck  (as  the  varying  interspace  required) 
against  one  of  the  legs,  and  his  feet  against  the  other, 
and  so  to  wriggle  his  way  upward.  His  attendants 
protested  that  the  feat  was  impossible;  and  at  first  it 
seemed  so,  for  he  failed  in  several  attempts.  But,  strip 
ping  himself  to  his  pantaloons,  which  were  no  encum 
brance  in  climbing,  he  was  at  last  successful. 

It  was  slow  and  weary  work :  but  he  made  good  his 
ascent  to  the  point  he  aimed  at. 

He  had  counted  upon  examining  the  lower  surface  of 
the  tablet  somewhat  leisurely  as  he  should  lie  stretched 
out  in  the  nook  below  the  knee-joints,  and  then,  by 
climbing  up  to  the  top  of  the  thighs,  make  his  descent 
to  the  plain  by  taking  advantage  of  the  irregular  pro 
jections  at  the  back  of  the  figure, — a  route  practicable 
enough  for  travel  under  direction  of  a  practised  guide. 
But  he  had  sadly  miscalculated  the  projection  of  the 
lapstone.  He  could  not  reach  it  from  the  position 
which  he  occupied;  and  there  he  hung,  in  painful  hori 
zontal  extension,  unable  to  ascend  between  the  knees, 
where  his  passage  was  effectually  blocked;  and,  as  he 
discovered  by  the  first  attempt  to  return  as  he  had  come 
up,  the  least  relaxation  of  his  brace  for  that  purpose 


94  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


would  let  him  down  with  a  run,  and  as  certainly  add 
another  relic  to  the  ruins  of  Thebes. 

We  must  leave  him  here  till  the  measures  necessary 
for  his  relief,  and  an  inquiry  which  is  as  necessary  to 
extricate  us  from  a  difficulty  of  our  own,  are  effected. 

The  figure  of  the  vocal  Memnon,  as  it  is  given  in  the 
books  commonly  accessible, — such  as  Chambers's  Infor 
mation  for  the  People,  Murray's  Encyclopaedia  of  Geo 
graphy,  and  Frost's  Ancient  History, — show  no  sign  of 
this  lapstone  or  tablet,  or,  indeed,  any  other  impediment 
to  the  continuous  ascent  of  a  climber  who  aims  at 
reaching  the  lap  of  the  sitting  figure,  when  he  has 
reached  the  position  in  which  Dr.  Kane  touched  the 
butt  and  boundary  of  his  upward  tending;  and  even 
the  large  and  otherwise  accurate  drawing  of  Rosellini 
gives  no  hint  of  it.  In  his  Memnon,  as  in  the  popular 
sketches,  the  hands  lie  spread  upon  the  thighs,  and  the 
apron  of  the  figure  falls  at  least  three  feet  short  of  cover 
ing  the  knees.  So,  the  difficulty  of  finding  the  difficulty 
turned  out  to  be  almost  equal  to  the  alleged  difficulty  of 
surmounting  it. 

But  the  Denkmaler  delivered  us  from  the  dilemma. 
There,  as  plain  as  any  other  feature  of  the  statue,  is 
the  obstructing  block, — neither  an  apron  nor  a  lapstone 
exactly,  but  a  tablet  ten  inches  thick,  jutting  out  flush 
with  the  knee-caps,  but  fixed  between  the  knees,  not 
lying  on  them.  The  end  of  this  block  is  obviously 
quite  beyond  the  reach  of  a  man  lying  extended  mid 
way  between  the  gigantic  knees,  and  too  thick  to  be 


ESCAPE.  95 


clutched  availably,  if  it  were  within  the  reach,  and  the 
climber  could  raise  the  courage,  and  run  the  risk  of 
trusting  to  the  grasp  of  one  hand  for  his  support  and 
safe  ascent  by  it. 

The  suspense  of  this  explanation  is  a  shorter  one,  and 
probably  much  less  straining,  than  that  which  our 
adventurer  had  to  endure ;  for  he  had  to  wait  till  a  boat 
man  mounted  his  horse,  galloped  away  over  the  sands,  and 
brought  the  Arab  guide,  who  knew  the  backway  ascent 
of  the  statue.  But  happily  the  messenger  brought  relief: 
the  Arab  climbed  to  the  lap  of  the  figure,  and,  planting 
himself  firmly  for  a  strong,  steady  pull,  threw  the  end 
of  his  sash  over  the  projecting  stone  and  swung  it  in 
till  the  doctor  grasped  it,  when,  swinging  himself  out 
boldly,  in  the  faith  that  a  stout  fellow  could  liaul  in  a 
light  one,  he  was  drawn  up  safely,  and  then  quietly 
descended  by  the  customary  pathway  to  the  plain. 

Quite  unexpectedly,  he  had  abundance  of  leisure  to 
transcribe  the  inscriptions  he  was  in  search  of, — if  there 
were  any ;  but,  for  reasons  which  we  make  bold,  to  say 
were  probably  sufficient  ones,  he  never  reported  any 
discoveries,  or  prospects  of  making  any,  likely  to  tempt 
future  explorers  to  a  rehearsal  of  his  enterprise. 

The  visit  to  Egypt,  and  its  engagements,  like  those  of 
his  residence  in  China,  were  concluded  by  an  attack  of 
the  disease  distinctive  of  the  climate.  This  was  his 
uniform  experience  in  every  grand  tour  of  his  life,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  sequel.  The  anemometers,  hygrometers, 
barometers,  and  thermometers  of  the  scientific  traveller 


96  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


are  no  better  indicators  and  registers  of  climatology 
than  the  varied  sensitiveness  of  the  constitution  he 
carried  with  him  in  all  his  journeyings. 

Scarcely  recovered  from  the  plague,  or  well  enough  to 
travel,  he  set  out  for  Greece  in  company  with  a  lieutenant 
of  the  British  army.  From  a  mere  scrap  of  a  letter,  it 
appears  that  he  was  at  Athens  on  the  10th  of  June,  1845. 
He  made  the  tour  of  Greece  on  foot,  which,  in  conse 
quence  of  his  weakness,  was  a  slow  one ;  but  the  exercise 
was  restorative,  and  he  managed  to  visit  all  its  scenes 
of  ancient  story  and  classic  interest. 

He  left  nothing  of  this  trip  behind  him  but  a  brief 
itinerary,  and  some  memorials  gathered  by  the  way  to 
present  to  his  friends  at  home. 

He  went  from  Athens  to  Eleusis,  thence  to  Plataea, 
to  Leuctra,  to  Thebes,  to  Cheronaea,  to  Livadia; 
then  to  the  top  of  Mount  Helicon,  and  there  cut  a 
walking-stick  from  the  brink  of  Hippocrene,  which  he 
brought  home  for  his  father,  with  the  motto  engraved 
upon  th.e  ring,  Fonte  prolui  Caballino.  Thence  he  passed 
on  to  Thermopylae  and  the  Zietoun  Gulf,  returned  by 
Parnassus  to  the  Delphic  oracle  at  Castri,  bathed  in  the 
fountain  in  which  the  Pythoness  was  wont  of  yore  to 
plunge  before  she  mounted  the  tripod  to  utter  her  thrice- 
sacred  oracles,  and  descended  to  the  plain  by  Galixidi 
and  Salona,  crossed  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto  in  an  open  boat, 
visited  Megaspelion  and  Yostitza,  traversed  the  Morea 
thoroughly,  and  then  took  a  steamer  from  Patras  for 
Trieste  by  the  Adriatic  Sea. 


PARIS — A    LETTER.  97 


Here  Germany  and  Switzerland  lay  before  him.  He 
travelled  through  both,  and  in  the  latter  so  carefully 
examined  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps  that  his  ice-theories 
of  the  Arctic  regions  are  enriched  with  frequent  and 
critical  allusions  to  them. 

On  the  13th  of  July  he  was  in  Paris. 

A  letter  of  the  doctor's  from  which  we  obtain  this 
date  discovers  that  at  this  time  he  was  intent  upon 
obtaining  a  license  from  the  Spanish  authorities  to  prac 
tise  his  profession  at  Manila,  in  the  island  of  Luzon. 

He  had  made  three  thousand  dollars  by  his  half- 
year's  practice  in  China,  and  promised  himself  an  outfit 
in  cash,  from  a  short  term  of  practice  among  the  Philip 
pine  Islands,  which  would  give  him  a  free  foot  for  a 
tour  of  the  world. 

Six  months  had  been  spent  in  travel  since  he  left 
Macao;  and  it  is  only  now  that  he  confesses  how  des 
perately  ill  he  had  been  there,  and  how  much  he  had 
endured  in  the  interval. 

The  letter  is  an  elaborate  defence  of  his  destiny  against 
the  solicitations  of  his  family  for  his  return  and  settle 
ment  at  home.  Its  topics  and  tone  are  too  deeply 
personal  for  publication ;  but  we  may  be  allowed  to  say 
of  it  that  any  page  in  it  would  amply  justify  the 
warmest  admiration  for  his  heroism,  his  feeling,  and  his 
authorship,  that  all  his  works  and  all  his  achievements 

have  won  for  his  memorv. 

«/ 

He  was  a  mere  skeleton,  he  says,  when  he  sailed 
from  China,  and  his  yearnings  for  home  and  his  mother's 

7 


98  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


nursing  are  poured  out,  pulsating  with  the  heart-throbs 
of  a  hungering  affection ;  yet  he  could  not  consent  to 
surrender  the  plan  of  life  to  which  he  had  so  resolutely 
devoted  himself. 

This  letter,  moreover,  discovers  that  he  knew  himself 
well,  and  that  his  life  was  not  led  by  an  irreflective 
impulse,  but  by  a  purpose  as  well  considered  as  it  was 
boldly  resolved;  and  it  is,  moreover,  a  piece  of  character 
ization  that  might  safely  challenge  a  parallel  among  the 
gems  of  aesthetic  literature. 

He  failed  in  his  application  to  the  Spanish  authorities, 
or  he  yielded  the  purpose  to  other  considerations ;  for  he 
soon  after  passed  over  into  Italy,  and  returned  through 
France  to  England,  and  from  England  came  home. 

It  will  be  seen  how  meagre  our  materials  are  for  the 
history  of  his  European  travels.  A  scrap  of  this  story 
appears  in  Mr.  Snow's  journal  of  the  Prince  Albert's 
expedition  to  the  Arctic  regions  in  1850  in  search  of  Sir 
John  Franklin.  The  writer  met  Dr.  Kane  in  Lancaster 
Sound,  and  gives  him  a  place  in  his  book.  He  says  of 
him : — 

"Dr.  Kane,  the  surgeon,  naturalist,  journalist,  etc. 
of  the  (first  Grinnel)  expedition,  was  of  an  exceedingly 
slim  and  apparently  fragile  form,  with  features,  to  all 
appearance,  far  better  suited  to  a  genial  clime  and  to  the 
comforts  of  a  pleasant  home  than  to  the  roughness  and 
hardships  of  an  Arctic  voyage.  I  found  that  he  had 
been  in  many  parts  of  the  world  that  I  myself  had 
visited,  and  in  many  others  that  I  could  only  long  to 


ALL    THE    WORLD    OVER.  99 


visit.  There,  in  that  cold,  inhospitable,  dreary  region 
of  everlasting  ice  and  snow,  did  we  again,  in  fancy,  gallop 
over  miles  and  miles  of  lands  far  distant,  and  far  more 
joyous.  Ever-smiling  Italy,  and  its  softening  life ;  sturdy 
Switzerland,  and  its  hardy  sons;  the  Alps,  the  Apen 
nines,  France,  Germany,  India,  Southern  Africa.  Then 
came  Spain,  Portugal,  and  my  own  England :  next 
appeared  Egypt,  Syria,  and  the  Desert.  With  all  these 
he  was  personally  familiar,  in  all  these  he  had  been  a 
traveller.  Rich  in  anecdote  and  full  of  pleasing  talk, 
time  flew  rapidly  as  I  conversed  with  him  and  partook 
of  the  hospitality  offered  me." 

The  range  of  this  single  trip  was,  however,  some 
thing  larger,  as  our  readers  will  remember,  than  this 
catalogue  of  Mr.  Snow  records  :  Madeira,  Brazil,  Ceylon, 
Luzon,  China,  its  islands,  Borneo,  Sumatra,  Persia, 
Nubia,  Sennaar,  and  Greece  must  be  inserted  into  the 
round  trip  before  it  is  completed;  and  at  the  time  of 
these  remembrances  he  had  been  in  Mexico  and  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  had  just  then  arrived  out,  by  way  of 
Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  and  all  Western  Greenland, 
in  Lancaster  Sound,  in  latitude  north  on  the  Western 
hemisphere  as  high  as  civilized  man  had  till  then 
reached,  and  was  at  the  time  but  thirty  years  of  age ! 

At  home  through  the  winter  of  1845-46,  he  must  be 
busy,  whether  his  ultimate  purposes  could  be  furthered 
by  the  occupation  at  hand  or  not.  It  is  probable  that, 
with  his  usual  earnestness,  and  to  give  play  to  his  rest 
less  energies,  he,  for  the  time  the  way  seemed  closed 


100  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


upon  his  travelling  propensities,  turned  his  ambition 
upon  professional  eminence,  with  a  view  to  the  practice 
of  medicine  and  teaching  as  a  lecturer  in  Philadelphia. 
He  took  a  house  in  Walnut  Street,  and  furnished  an 
office  in  it  with  taste  and  elaborate  care.  With  his 
medical  brethren  he  kept  a  full  round  of  engagements, — 
chemical,  anatomical,  quiz,  and  soire*e. 

It  must  be  recollected  that,  although  he  had  now 
been  for  nearly  four  years  a  titular  assistant  surgeon  of 
the  United  States  navy,  he  had  not  been  commissioned 
and  put  upon  the  pay-roll. 

His  repugnance  to  the  service  was  decided :  it  would 
not  be  too  much  to  say  he  detested  it.  From  his  first 
'cruise  to  the  end  of  his  voyaging  he  was  always  sea-sick 
in  rough  weather.  But  this  was  as  nothing  to  the  routine 
life  of  a  subordinate  to  which  it  subjected  him.  The 
distinctions  of  rank  which  our  naval  service  tolerates, 
without  justifying,  outraged  his  frank  democracy  of  feel 
ing.  All  manifestations  of  masterdom  were  abhorrent  to 
Kim.  He  had  no  feeling  that  forbade  the  taking  of 
human  life ;  but  he  could  not  endure  the  bullying  spirit 
which  violates  its  common  rights.  An  insult,  or  a  blow 
that  carries  one  with  it,  he  regarded  as  worse  than 
death  if  it  must  be  passively  endured.  And  it  was  just 
as  hard  for  him  to  witness  as  to  receive  such  indignities. 
There  was  nothing  in  him  that  fitted  him  for  naval 
service  except  his  capacity  for  the  performance  of  its 
duties :  its  regime  was  his  abhorrence.  Yet  now,  when 
his  family  urged  him  to  resign  his  official  relations  to  it, 


WAITING    ORDERS.  101 


he  refused ;  for  at  this  time  there  was  a  speck  of  war 
on  the  horizon,  and  he  insisted  that  it  would  not  be 
honorable  for  him  to  leave  the  navy  with  that  chance 
impending. 

Mr.  Bancroft,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  intended  to 
station  him  at.  the  Navy- Yard  or  Naval  Asylum  of  Phila 
delphia  ;  but,  upon  an  intimation  from  the  head  of  the 
Surgical  Bureau,  that,  according  to  the  etiquette  of  the 
service,  this  post  should  be  given  to  some  one  his  senior 
in  rank,  he  put  himself  upon  the  roll  of  the  Department, 
"waiting  orders," — curtly  justifying  himself  for  the 
decision  with — "What  else  does  the  country  pay  so 
many  idle  louts  in  time  of  peace  for?" 

The  order  came  three  weeks  before  Congress  declared 
that  "  war  with  Mexico  already  existed  by  the  act  of 
that  power;"  but  it  was  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  in  the 
frigate  United  States,  under  Commodore  Reed,  that  he 
was  despatched.  This  was,  as  he  would  phrase  it, 
bitterly  bitter  to  him.  It  was  to  the  active  service  of 
the  expected  war  that  he  looked  when  he  put  himself 
under  marching-orders ;  but  he  was  too  proud  to  retract 
his  submission,  or  by  a  word  attempt  to  modify  his  des 
tination,  although  it  would  have  required  but  little 
beyond  his  own  consent  to  have  it  effected.  For,  in  the 
greatest  as  in  the  smallest  actions  and  interests  of  his 
life,  he  stood  unflinchingly  the  hazards  of  the  die  which 
he  voluntarily  cast :  a  purpose  of  his,  once  fixed,  was  his 
fate.  He  never  reconsidered  or  amended  a  resolution 
after  he  had  passed  it  through  the  forms  of  enactment. 


102  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


The  Vessel  sailed  about  the  25th  of  May,  1846.  In 
the  middle  of  June  it  reached  Cape  Verd, 

When  the  doctor  was  at  Brazil  in  1843,  he  had  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  famous  Da  Souza,  a  Portuguese 
merchant  largely  engaged  in  the  slave-trade,  and,  in 
return  for  some  professional  services,  received  from  him 
introductory  letters  to  his  commercial  representatives  on 
the  Coast.  Presenting  these  letters  when  ashore  with  a 
party  of  officers,  he  was  entertained  with  very  liberal 
hospitality,  and  admitted  to  the  freest  confidence  that 
his  position  would  allow  him  to  accept. 

He  availed  himself  of  the  facilities  which  he  could 
command  to  visit  the  slave-factories  from  Cape  Mount 
to  the  river  Bonny  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 

While  the  frigate  lay  in  harbor,  a  caravan  was  ready 
to  set  out  from  one  of  those  factories  on  the  coast  for 
Dahomey,  the  great  slave-mart  of  the  interior,  carrying 
a  magnificent  tribute  of  jewelry  and  ornate  furniture 
from  the  factory  to  his  sable  majesty.  Dr.  Kane  pro 
cured  the  commodore's  permission  to  join  the  party,  and, 
it  seems,  became  quite  a  favorite  with  the  sovereign 
while  the  embassy  remained  at  court.  A  semi-diadem  of 
feathers,  and  a  number  of  baskets  decorated  with  the 
royal  crimson  dye,  which  are  still  preserved  at  Fern 
Kock,  were  among  the  testimonials  of  regard  which  he 
brought  home  with  him. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  courtesies  received  and  the 
impressions  they  were  intended  to  make,  the  recollec- 


A    PATTERN    OF    A    KING.  103 


tions  of  the  highly-favored  guest  were  not,  on  the  whole, 
complimentary. 

The  monarch  of  Dahomey,  in  his  report,  was  every 
inch  a  king, — as  magnificent  as  the  best  of  them  in  his 
retinue,  and  somewhat  more  opulent  in  wives  and  abso 
lute  in  authority.  A  pattern  of  a  prince  was  he,  and  a 
worthy  successor  of  that  illustrious  predecessor  of  his, 
of  happy  memory,  who  received  an  English  traveller 
sitting  naked  upon  a  tiger-skin,  greased  all  over  with 
palm-oil  and  powdered  with  gold-dust,  his  hand  resting 
upon  a  skull,  while  his  poet-laureate  sang  a  birthday 
ode  which  is  freely  rendered  thus  : — 

"  Ho,  tam-a-rama  bo  now, 
Sam-a-rambo  jug  ! 
Hurrah  for  the  son  of  the  sun ! 
Hurrah  for  the  brother  of  the  moon  ! 

Buffalo  of  buffaloes,  and  bull  of  bulls ! 

«  -  • 

He  sits  on  a  throne  of  his  enemies'  skulls ; 
And,  if  he  wants  more  to  play  at  football, 
Ours  are  at  his  service, — all,  all,  all." 

His  majesty,  magnificent  and  munificent  in  all  things 
royal,  amused  himself  occasionally,  or  oftener,  with  cut 
ting  off  his  enemies'  heads, — and  sometimes  his  courtiers', 
with  or  without  reason,  and  about  as  rightfully,  perhaps, 
as  the  same  things  are  done  elsewhere  for  what  are  called 
"  reasons  of  state."  His  munificence  was  in  feathers  and 
baubles,  and  the  favors  of  his  harem,  dispensed  to  such 
of  his  worthy  guests  as  had  the  taste  to  accept  them. 

The  manner  of  selecting   his   host  of  sultanas  was 


104  ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


right  royal :  applying  the  Norman  doctrine  of  tenure  in 
the  lands  of  England  to  the  ladies,  the  entire  sex  of  his 
realm,  by  a  species  of  domesday  practice,  the  women 
of  Dahomey  are  annually  mustered,  the  king  seizes  a 
few  hundreds  of  them  in  right  of  eminent  domain,  and 
grants  the  refuse  to  his  grandees  in  fee  of  knight- 
service,  which  they  are  bound  to  receive  with  the  most 
humble  gratitude. 

Nor  is  his  majesty  a  whit  behind  the  most  renowned 
of  his  craft  as  a  killer.  The  large  court-yard  near  the 
palatial  shanty  was  literally  covered  with  skulls,  the 
memorials  of  his  sabre-skill;  and  it  was  only  at  the 
pressing  solicitation  of  his  Christian  visitors  that  he 
adjourned  an  exhibition  of  his  prowess  in  that  line. 

Dr.  Kane  returned  from  Dahomey  with  the  impression 
that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  the  early 
periods  of  the  trade,  the  slaves  that  are  driven  to  the 
coast  for  shipment  may  very  well  congratulate  them 
selves  upon  the  commutation  of  their  fate,  even  with  the 
"middle  passage"  before  them.  Indeed,  he  believed 
that  the  predatory  wars  of  Inner  Africa,  though  now 
stimulated  in  some  degree  by  the  cupidity  of  the  chief 
tains,  had  their  origin  in  a  dark  fanaticism  that  sought 
for  prisoners  as  victims  for  sacrifice.  He  was  convinced 
that  very  many  of  those  whom  he  saw  caged  in  Dahomey 
were  too  young  and  too  infirm  to  be  merchantable. 

It  is  well  known  that  they  have  two  annual  festivals 
of  slaughter,  in  which  the  king  and  chief  men  propitiate 
the  manes  of  their  ancestors  by  a  crowd  of  victims. 


COAST-FEVER.  105 


The  walls  of  the  palace  and  temples  are  ornamented 
with  skulls;  the  king  has  his  sleeping-apartment  paved 
with  them;  and  war  and  glory,  after  the  manner  of 
kingship,  are  grander  and  even  more  merciless  with 
him,  as  they  are  elsewhere,  than  the  passion  for  for 
eign  traffic. 

Dr.  Kane  had  not  been  long  on  the  coast  when  the 
pestilence  of  that  region  made  its  appearance  on  board 
the  frigate.  "  I  am  sitting/'  he  writes,  "  in  my  little 
cockpit  state-room.  Fumes  of  mouldy  boots  and  molasses 
are  exuding  from  the  dirty  deck  below  me ;  and  heaven's 
breath  comes  to  me  through  a  long  canvas  tube.  This 
grateful  conductor  of  vitality  is  called  a  wind-sail.  Its 
funnel  has  been  pointed  opposite  my  kennel,  and  I  am 
thankfully  enjoying  the  wet-towel  smell  of  the  scanty 
breeze.  The  jaundiced-looking  spermaceti  candle  on 
my  table  has  been  gasping  so  at  the  scanty  oxygen  that 
I  have  even  put  it  out  of  its  misery,  and  I  am  writing 
by  the  beams  of  the  hatchway-lantern.  The  weather 
above  is  rainy,  and  it  is  night  there  as  well  as  here. 
The  thermometer  is  at  eighty-five  degrees.  Our  voyage 
from  the  Cape  de  Verds, — oh!  that  sleepy  period  of 
stagnation, — it  was  a  nearly  continuous  calm.  Six  cases 
of  the  dreaded  fever  broke  out  before  we  had  been  a 
week  from  port;  and  I  am  now  in  the  midst  of  the  true 
responsibilities  of  a  navy  surgeon.  We  are  on  our  way 
south.  A  London  homeward-bound  may  deliver  this 
note  :  if  so,  let  it  assure  you  of  my  continued  health  and 
determination  to  make  the  best  of  my  bad  bargain. 


106  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Tell  mother  not  to  be  uneasy.  The  fever  is  not  con 
tagious,  and  one  never  loses  by  attention  to  duty." 

In  less  than  three  months  after  this  he  was  himself 
prostrated  by  the  "  coast-fever."  His  attack  was  exceed 
ingly  severe.  For  three  weeks  the  active  virulence  of 
the  disease  held  on  without  check :  in  three  weeks  more 
he  was  only  strong  enough  to  allow  of  his  being  lowered 
over  the  ship's  side  and  sent  home  in  one  of  the  Liberia 
transport-vessels. 

A  letter  of  Dr.  Dillard,  the  fleet-surgeon,  written  at 
the  port  of  St.  Jago,  one  of  the  Cape  de  Verd  Islands, 
to  one  of  the  doctor's  friends,  serves  a  purpose  which 
warrants  its  insertion  here. 

(COPY.) 

"  U.  S.  FRIGATE  UNITED  STATES,  \ 
PORTO  PRATA,  March  9,  1847. 1 

"Dr.  Kane  returns  home  on  account  of  ill  health.  His  disease  was 
the  coast-fever,  and  the  attack  exceedingly  severe.  It  manifested 
itself  on  the  1st  of  February,  and  continued  with  unmitigated  violence 
for  ten  days.  The  abatement  of  the  fever  was  not  then  complete,  but 
greatly  diminished,  and  finally  left  the  patient  on  the  twenty-first  day  worn 
out  and  exhausted.  His  recovery  and  convalescence  have  been  slow, 
his  present  prostration  and  debility  great.  He  gains  strength  tardily; 
and  I  fear  that  if  he  be  kept  in  this  baleful  climate  he  may  relapse  and 
die,  or  suffer  in  his  constitution.  Under  this  view  I  have  thought  it 
best  to  send  him  home.  He  goes  in  the  <  Chesapeake  and  Liberian 
Packet/ — a  new  and  comfortable  ship, — and  will  have  every  possible 
attention  extended  to  him.  May  he  soon  reach  his  country  and  rejoin 
his  family  in  renewed  health !  God  bless  him  ! 

"I  part  with  him  with  regret,  and  shall  miss  him  much.  I  lose 
not  only  a  useful  and  necessary  assistant,  but  a  valued  and  esteemed 


A    CHRONIC    COMPLAINT.  107 


young  friend.     Our  association,  both  official  and  social,  has  been  of  the 
pleasantest  kind.  Very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  T.  DlLLARD." 

To  this  attack  of  the  coast-fever  he  was  accustomed 
ever  afterward  to  ascribe  the  most  serious  breach  that 
disease  had  made  in  his  constitution.  He  carried  this 
feeling  with  him  to  the  last  as  a  complaint  against  the 
administration  which  condemned  him  to  a  field  of  ser 
vice  ill  suited  to  his  constitution  and  his  aspirations. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A   SUMMER   OP   SUFFERING OPPORTUNITY   LOST — THE    LAST    CHANCE 

SEIZED DESPATCHED  TO  MEXICO — SHIPWRECK  IN   THE    GULF — THE 

SPY-COMPANY — AFFAIR  AT  NOPALUCA — RESCUE  OF  HIS  PRISONERS — 
HARD  FIGHTING  AND   ROUGH  SURGERY — WOUNDED — TYPHUS   FEVER 

— NEWSPAPER  HISTORY SURFEIT  OF  PATRIOTISM — IRKSOMENESS  OF 

THE  LIVERY — CHARGES  AGAINST  DOMINGUES THE  HORSE-CLAIM 

— HOW  IT  WAS  PROVED,  AND  WHA,T  IT  PROVED — GRATITUDE  OF  HIS 
PRISONERS. 

DR.  KANE  reached  Philadelphia  on  the  6th  of  April, 
1847,  a  broken-down  man.  He  had  sailed  for  the  pesti 
lential  coast  of  Africa  ten  months  before,  with  a  reluc 
tance  that  nothing  but  a  despotic  self-government  could 
have  subdued.  He  returned  in  the  condition  and  with 
the  feeling  of  a  sacrificed  man.  Knowing  that  he  held 
his  life  by  the  most  precarious  tenure,  and  certain  that 
it  must  be  a  short  one,  he  yearned  to  crowd  it  with 
activities  which  might  compensate  by  their  worthiness 
for  its  brevity.  His  opportunity  seemed  now  to  have 
escaped  him ;  and  the  weary  weeks  of  the  ensuing  con 
finement  in  his  sick-room  were  among  the  worst  for  him 
of  his  hard  lifetime.  The  arm  of  the  service  to  which 
108 


A    SUMMER    OF    SUFFERING.  109 


he  was  attached,  and  which  was  odious  to  him  except 
for  such  opportunities  of  adventure  and  patriotic  service 
as  it  offered  to  him,  had,  while  he  was  absent,  entirely 
performed  its  share  of  duty  in  the  Mexican  War.  Both 
on  the  Pacific  and  in  the  Gulf,  all  the  strongholds  of  the 
enemy  against  which  the  navy  could  be  engaged  had 
been  reduced,  and  there  was  nothing  that  he  desired  left 
for  him  to  expect  in  the  routine  of  the  chances  which  it 
offered. 

He  must  repair  his  hopes ;  and  he  made  the  endeavor 
with  an  almost  desperate  tenacity  of  purpose.  As  soon 
as  his  strength  permitted  him  to  travel,  and  long  before 
his  physician  and  his  family  had  recognised  his  conva 
lescence,  he  hurried  off  to  Washington  for  the  purpose 
of  soliciting  a  transfer  of  his  commission  to  the  military 
staff,  or,  if  that  might  not  be,  a  position  in  the  line  of 
the  army.  He  had  secured  letters  from  the  Governor 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  from  other  influential  friends  of  the 
President,  enforcing  his  application,  and  he  would  have 
been  successful;  but  his  health  gave  way  again,  and  he 
remained  for  some  weeks  dangerously  ill  at  the  seat  of 
Government. 

One  more  long  term  of  watching  and  nursing  gave 
his  mother  the  companionship  of  her  son,  under  the 
only  conditions  in  which  she  had  ever  enjoyed  it  since 
his  infancy;  and,  under  her  care,  by  the  ensuing  month 
of  October  he  was  able  to  meet  his  friends  again. 

One  Saturday  night,  at  the  close  of  the  month,  he 
attended  the  Wistar  party  at  his  father's  house,  and 


110  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


passed  the  evening  as  if  its  enjoyments  sufficed  him. 
The  company  congratulated  him  upon  the  prospect  of 
a  speedy  and  complete  recovery  from  his  long  illness : 
many  good  wishes  and  much  good  advice  were  bestowed 
upon  the  valetudinary,  and  the  festivities  went  on  as  if 
his  prudence  could  be  relied  upon  and  all  solicitude 
might  now  be  discarded,  for  he  looked  just  as  if  he  were 
clearly  pledged  to  a  conformable  behavior.  But  he  was 
missed  at  the  close  of  the  entertainment,  which  was 
readily  accounted  for  by  the  supposition  that  he  had 
crossed  the  street  to  escape  the  fatigue  of  late  hours,  and 
would  spend  t*  night  in  the  quiet  which  he  needed. 

He  did  not  return  till  the  middle  of  the  week.  He 
had  taken  the  night  train  for  "Washington  City,  effected 
his  object  there,  and  announced  to  his  friends  that  he 
was  under  orders  for  the  seat  of  war. 

He  had  pressed  his  application  for  worthier  service 
upon  the  President,  and  enforced  it  by  the  complaint 
which  he  had  to  make  of  his  African  appointment. 
Mr.  Polk  afterward  said  that  he  had  this  in  his  mind 
when  he  gave  him  the  opportunity  of  seeing  service  in 
Mexico. 

The  city  of  Mexico  had  surrendered  a  month  before 
to  General  Scott;  but  Colonel  Childs  was  at  the  time 
besieged  in  Puebla,  and  the  communication  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  with  the  Gulf  coast  was  otherwise  inter 
rupted  by  the  presence  and  hostilities  of  the  enemy. 

An  important  despatch  which  had  been  forwarded  in 
triplicate  by  the  Secretary  of  War  had  each  time  failed, 


DESPATCHED    TO    MEXICO.  Ill 


or  its  reception  at  head-quarters  had  not  been  acknow 
ledged;  and  the  President  had  resolved  to  confide  it 
orally  to  Dr.  Kane,  who  engaged  to  thread  his  way  to 


the  Mexican  capital  as  best  he  might. 

He  was  charged,  besides,  with  orders  from  the  chiefs 
of  the  medical  staff  of  the  army  and  navy.* 

*  These  orders  ran  thus  : — 

"NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  BUREAU  OF  MEDICINE  AND  SURGERY,") 
November  5,  1847.  J 

"  SIR  : — I  take  the  opportunity  afforded  by  your  departure  for  the  seat 
of  war  under  special  orders  from  this  Department,  to  urge  upon  you  the 
necessity  and  advantage  of  collating  and  preserving  such  facts  relating 
to  field  and  hospital  organization,  and  especially  snch  surgical  cases  and 
statistics,  as  may  come  under  your  observation  ;  and  it  is  my  wish  that 
you  make  a  full  and  accurate  report  of  all  such  information  to  this  Bureau. 
"  Respectfully,  T.  HARRIS, 

"  Chief  of  Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery" 
"Assistant  Surgeon  E.  K.  KANE,  U.S.N." 

"  SURGEON-GENERAL'S  OFFICE,  November  5,  1847. 
"  To  the  Officers  of  the  Medical  Department  serving  in  Mexico. 
"  GENTLEMEN  : — The  bearer  of  this — Dr.  Kane,  of  the  navy — impelled 
by  a  laudable  zeal  for  professional  improvement,  and  a  desire  to  partici 
pate  in  active  field-service,  has  obtained  an  order  from  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy  to  proceed  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  main  army  and  report 
to  the  commanding  general  for  duty. 

"  Dr.  Kane  is  instructed  to  visit  the  general  and  field  hospitals,  &c. 
on  his  route ;  and  I  feel  assured  that  the  courtesy  of  the  medical  staff 
in  the  army  will  afford  him  all  the  facilities  necessary  to  promote  the 
objects  he  may  have  in  view. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  commend  him  to  your  friendly  consideration. 
"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 
"  H.  L.  HEISKILL,  Acting  Surgeon- General." 


112  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


With  these  official  and  numerous  private  letters  from 
Washington  friends,  he  set  out  on  the  6th  of  November 
for  Mexico.  On  his  way  he  procured  a  horse,  bred  by 
Colonel  Shirley,  of  Kentucky,  every  way  worthy  of  the 
adventurous  service  which  lay  before  him.  The  doctor 
was  a  brilliant  horseman,  and  no  knight-errant  could 
have  been  better  matched  with  a  charger.  He  bore  his 
master  bravely  through  a  hotly-contested  fight;  and  in  a 
very  curious  way,  by  a  posthumous  service,  he  has  been 
as  serviceable  to  that  master's  biographer  in  a  field  as 
stoutly  debated.  If  the  reader  knew  exactly  how  we 
have  been  beleaguered,  he  would  see  clearly  how  the 
"gallant  gray"  bears  his  friends  through  a  guerilla 
skirmish. 

The  horse  and  his  rider  reached  New  Orleans  on 
the  22d,  and  sailed  for  Yera  Cruz,  in  the  United 
States  steamer  Fashion,  on  the  23d.  Their  companions 
were  a  mixed  multitude, — ladies,  officers,  gentlemen, 
volunteer  soldiers,  followers  of  the  camp,  horses,  and  all 
the  lumber  of  military  equipage.  Colonel  Seymour,  of 
the  Georgia  regiment,  and  Major  Eoth,  of  the  volunteers, 
then  holding  a  subordinate  rank,  were  among  the  pas 
sengers. 

They  had  a  rough  time  of  it  in  the  Gulf, — encountered 
one  of  its  severest  northers,  and  were  for  some  days  in 
imminent  peril.  Their  bulwarks  were  stove,  the  hull 
strained  badly,  and  the  pumps  all  broken  or  choked. 
The  doctor  took  a  very  active  part  in  backing  the  deck- 
load  of  dragoon-horses  overboard,  and  was  in  the  act  of 


ARRIVAL    IN    MEXICO.  113 


immolating  his  own  noble  steed,  when  he  was  respited 
by  the  solicitations  of  some  officers,  whose  admiration 
the  fine  points  of  the  animal  had  secured.  He  escaped 
the  submersion,  and  had  his  name  changed,  in  memo- 
riam,  on  the  spot,  from  Tom  to  Kelic. 

The  gale  continued:  the  steamer  was  sinking;  scuttle- 
holes  were  cut  in  her  deck,  and  all  hands  were  employed, 
under  Dr.  Kane's  supervision,  in  baling  below-decks  with 
camp-kettles.  The  storm  had  scarcely  even  moderated 
when,  driving  before  it,  the  Fashion  passed  between 
two  sets  of  reefs  and  found  herself  near  the  Castle  of 
San  Juan.  It  was  a  miraculous  escape;  for  she  had 
no  other  access  to  port,  and  she  could  not  have  survived 
outside. 

Landing  at  Yera  Cruz,  Dr.  Kane  learned  that  a  corps 
of  the  army,  under  General  Armstrong,  of  Tennessee, 
had  moved  to  the  interior  a  few  days  before.  He  passed 
a  single  night,  or  part  of  the  night,  after  landing,  and 
then,  with  a  party  of  officers  who  had  been  prevented 
from  accompanying  their  regiments,  galloped  off  through 
the  enemy's  defiles  to  overtake  their  columns.  They 
reached  the  marching  body  in  safety,  and  moved  on 
with  it  as  far  as  Perote. 

The  rest  of  this  story  is  so  full  of  the  romantic  as 
to  require  a  close  shelter  for  its  facts  under  the 
authentic  data  in  our  possession.  We  must  go  roughly, 
that  we  may  get  safely  through  it. 

Dr.  George  E.  Cooper,  assistant  surgeon  of  the  United 
States  army,  writing  at  Philadelphia,  December  1, 1848, 


114  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


says,  "When  stationed  in  the  castle  of  Perote  in  the 
month  of  January,  1848,  I  was  visited  by  Dr.  Elisha  K. 
Kane,  of  the  United  States  navy,  who  was  then  en 
route  for  the  city  of  Mexico,  being,  as  I  learned  from 
him,  the  bearer  of  despatches  from  our  Government  to 
the  commander-in-chief.  He  was  unable  to  proceed  on 
his  journey,  for  want  of  an  escort,  and  remained  with  me 
until  the  contra-guerillas  or  spy-company,  commanded 
by  Colonel  Domingues,  arrived  at  the  town  of  Perote  en 
route  for  the  capital.  The  doctor  had  with  him  at  the 
castle  of  Perote  a  full-blooded  gray  gelding,  the  finest 
animal  I  ever  saw  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico.  When 
the  doctor  left  the  castle  to  pursue  his  journey,  I  accom 
panied  him  on  the  Puebla  Road  until  we  overtook  the 
rear-guard  of  the  spy-company,  which  had  started  some 
short  time  before  us." 

This,  as  appears  from  other  sources,  was  on  the  3d  of 
January.  Immediately  before  this  date,  a  scrap  of  a 
letter  written  by  Dr.  Kane  on  a  piece  of  cartridge-paper, 
(which,  however,  was  not  received  in  Philadelphia  until 
long  after  the  period  of  anxiety  for  his  fate  had  passed,) 
says,  "  I  have  determined  to  trust  myself  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  renegade  spy-company,  Colonel 
Domingues,  and  thus  reach  Mexico  (the  city)  in  time  for 
reputation  or  not  at  all." 

On  the  6th,  at  a  place  near  Nopal  uca,  and  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  Puebla,  the  escort — about  one 
hundred  and  twenty  mounted  lancers,  all  Mexican 
skinners,  bandits,  and  traitors — encountered  a  body  of 


AFFAIR    AT    NOPALUCA.  115 


Mexican  guerillas  who  were  escorting  a  number  of 
Mexican  officers  to  Orizaba,  among  whom  were  ^Major- 
General  Gaona,  former  Governor  of  Puebla,  his  son  and 
aide-de-camp  Maximilian,  General  Torrejon,  who  led  the 
charge  at  Buena  Vista,  and  others  of  less  note. 

The  conflict  which  ensued  was  short  but  severe. 
Generals  Gaona  and  Torrejon,  Colonel  Gaona,  with  two 
captains  and  thirty-eight  rank  and  file  of  the  Mexican 

party,  were  taken  prisoners. 

i 

In  the  first  notice  of  this  affair  which  reached  Phila 
delphia,  published  in  "  The  Pennsylvanian"  of  the  8th 
February,  1848,  it  was  stated  that  "Dr.  Kenny  comes 
up  (to  Puebla)  with  the  escort  as  bearer  of  despatches 
from  Washington  to  General  Scott."  Dr.  Kane's  friends 
at  this  time  knew  nothing  of  his  connection  with  the 
spy-company,  and  were  not  alarmed  for  his  safety. 
The  earliest  news  in  which  his  name  was  correctly 
given  was  in  the  "Pennsylvania  Inquirer,"  written  at 
Puebla,  January  17,  postmarked  at  New  Orleans,  Febru 
ary  18.  It  ran  thus  : — 

"  The  encounter  was  quite  unexpected ;  and  they  did 
not  see  each  other  until  within  twenty  or  thirty  yards 
of  the  advance  on  either  side,  as  they  were  at  the  same 
time  ascending  the  opposite  sides  of  a  steep  hill,  and 
met  upon  the  top.  After  a  sharp  encounter,  which  lasted 
but  a  few  minutes,  the  spy-company,  having  killed  three 
or  four  privates,  and  wounded  Colonel  Gaona  with  a  lance 
in  the  lungs,  and  a  major  with  a  ball  through  the  thighs, 
succeeded  in  making  prisoners  General  Torrejon,  General 


116  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


Gaona,  two  colonels,  three  majors,  and  thirty-eight 
privates. 

"  But  for  the  gallantry  and  magnanimous  exertions  of 
Dr.  Kane,  they  would  have  killed  General  Gaona,  the 
father  of  the  colonel  of  that  name,  and  several  other 
officers.  Dr.  Kane,  with  the  utmost  intrepidity,  rode 
from  one  to  another  of  the  spy-company,  ordering  them 
to  give  quarter  to  all.  Dr.  Kane  is  still  at  the  house  of 
General  Gaona,  who  said  yesterday  to  Colonel  Childs, 
the  Governor  of  Puebla,  when  he  called  on  the  illus 
trious  prisoners  who  are  quartered  with  Colonel  Gaona  at 
the  palace,  that  he  owed  his  life  to  Dr.  Kane,  and  would 
be  glad  at  any  time  to  die  for  him.  General  Torrejon 
said  that  he  too  owed  him  his  life ;  and  so  did  others  of 
the  officers." 

In  «  The  Pennsylvanian"  of  the  24th  of  March,  1848, 
the  following  account  of  the  Nopaluca  affair  appeared : — 

"  It  seems  that  in  anticipation  of  the  American  attack 
upon  Orizaba,  since  signally  successful,  a  column  of 
Mexicans  was  hastening  to  reinforce  that  place,  a  con 
siderable  distance  in  advance  of  which  rode  on  their  way 
a  bevy  of  distinguished  officers  with  a  troop  of  lancers. 
Dr.  Kane  and  his  escort,  hastening  to  the  city  of  Mexico 
with  important  despatches,  encountered  these  on  the 
high-road  near  Nopaluca,  about  thirty  miles  distant 
from  Puebla. 

"It  is  not  clear  to  us  how  the  doctor  ranked  in  the 
party,  which  was  the  contra-guerilla  or  Mexican  spy- 
company  of  the  notorious  Domingues;  but  it  appears 


RESCUE    OF    PRISONERS.  117 


that  it  was  at  his  instance,  if  not  at  his  order,  that  they 
engaged  the  enemy.  The  two  corps  met  at  the  summit 
of  a  steep  hill,  which  the  escort  reached  a  moment  in 
advance  of  the  Mexicans,  The  affair  was  brilliant  but 
brief.  The  Americo-Mexicans  evidently  fought  with 
the  reckless  bravery  of  men  who  knew  that  halters  were 
hanging  ready  for  them  if  taken.  A  few  of  their  foes 
escaped, — a  colonel  and  two  captains  among  the  number  : 
the  rest  were  either  killed  or  captured,  and  carried  to 
Puebla.  It  is  some  satisfaction  to  learn  definitely  that 
General  Torrejon,  who  led  the  Buena  Vista  charge, — 
the  Torrejon  who  has  been  reported  out  of  harm's  way 
so  often, — is  one  of  the  prisoners." 

This  is  the  sum  of  the  military  report  of  the  matter : 
now  for  that  which  smacks  of  romance. 

"  At  one  period  of  the  charge,  when  Dr.  Kane  was 
some  distance  ahead  of  the  rest  of  his  company,  his  fine 
horse  carried  him  in  between  a  spirited  young  major  and 
his  orderly,  who  fell  upon  him  at  the  same  moment. 
The  lance  of  the  latter  failed  at  the  thrust,  except  so 
far  as  to  inflict  a  slight  flesh-wound  upon  the  doctor, 
who,  being  able  to  parry  the  major's  sabre-cut,  ran  that 
officer  through  the  bowels.  The  fight  over,  Dr.  Kane 
was  attending  to  his  own  hurts,  when  the  poor  wounded 
youth  seized  him  by  his  arm,  crying, '  Father  !  my  father ! 
save  my  father !'  The  renegade  Mexicans,  having  deter 
mined  to  slaughter  their  prisoners,  had  commenced 
operations  by  attacking  their  chief  man,  an  aged 
person,  who  had  surrendered  to  Dr.  Kane.  He  was  at 


118  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


the  moment  defending  himself,  bare-headed  and  unarmed, 
against  his  assailants.  Dr.  Kane  saved  him  and  numerous 
others ;  but  it  appears  that  he  did  so  with  great  efforts, 
and  at  considerable  personal  risk." 

A  writer  at  Puebla,  in  the  "  Inquirer/'  under  date  of 
the  26th  January,  says,  "  He  parried  four  sabre-cuts  that 
were  made  at  him,  and  did  not  succeed  in  enforcing 
obedience  to  his  orders  until  he  had  drawn  his  six- 
shooter — which  all  Mexicans  hold  in  mortal  dread — and 
fired  at  Colonel  Domingues,  the  commander  of  the  squad 
ron  ;  and  the  doctor  received  a  thrust  from  a  lance  in  the 
lower  part  of  his  abdomen.  They  also  killed  his  horse." 

The  correspondent  of  "The  Pennsylvanian"  con 
tinues  : — 

"  As  soon  as  the  old  general  was  rescued,  he  sat  down 
by  the  side  of  the  major,  his  son,  to  comfort  his  last 
painful  moments.  When  the  doctor  observed  that  that 
individual  was  bleeding  to  death  from  an  artery  in  the 
groin,  he  made  an  effort  in  his  behalf.  With  the  bent 
prong  of  a  table-fork  he  took  up  the  artery  and  tied  it 
with  a  ravel  of  packthread,  and  the  rude  surgical  opera 
tion  was  perfectly  successful. 

"  When  they  all  arrived  safely  at  Puebla,  the  gratitude 
of  the  Mexicans  saved  was  extravagant.  They  publicly 
declared  to  Colonel  Childs,  the  American  Governor  of 
Puebla,  that  they  owed  their  lives  to  Dr.  Kane  ;  and 
the  governor  thereupon  returned  him  thanks  for  his 
gallantry  and  humanity.  General  Gaona  proffered  him 
the  choice  of  his  stables  to  replace  his  Kentucky  stallion 


TYPHUS    FEVER.  119 


untimely  butchered  in  the  conflict,  and  some  sort  of 
honorary  festival  was  in  preparation,  when  the  doctor, 
from  the  effect  of  the  wound  in  the  abdomen,  joined, 
probably,  to  great  physical  exhaustion,  fell  deadly  sick. 
His  disease  took  the  form  of  Calentura  typhoidea, — the 
worst  of  typhus, — and,  after  lying  in  a  state  of  insensi 
bility  for  twelve  days,  symptoms  of  approaching  dissolu 
tion  made  their  appearance,  and  he  was  given  over  by 
his  medical  assistants 

"  His  life  was  spared  through  the  gratitude  of  the 
noble  old  Spaniard  who  owed  his  own  to  him.  On  the 
second  day  of  Dr.  Kane's  illness  he  insisted  upon  carry 
ing  him  to  his  own  princely  residence,  and  gave  him  the 
benefit  of  every  comfort  and  luxury  which  a  refined 
sensibility  could  suggest  and  ample  means  provided. 
The  general,  with  his  distinguished  lady  and  accom 
plished  daughters,  took  upon  themselves  all  the  offices  of 
menials,  suffering  the  care  of  nursing  and  attending  him 
to  be  shared  only  by  the  physicians,  four  of  whom  they 
had  in  waiting  night  and  day." 

We  have  given  these  newspaper-reports  of  the  affair 
at  Nopaluca  for  the  substance  of  truth  there  is  in  them, 
because  we  have  no  narrative  of  the  incidents  from  the 
principal  actor  himself.  Once  only  in  all  our  personal 
intercourse  the  skirmish  of  that  6th  of  January  was 
alluded  to,  and  then  only  to  correct  one  of  the  exaggera 
tions  of  his  surgical  service  to  young  Gaona.  He  said, 
"  His  wound  was  not  in  the  groin  :  it  was  in  the  chest ; 
and  the  artery  was  one  of  the  intercostals." 


120  ELISHA    KENT     KANE. 


By  way  of  necessary  explanation,  I  may  as  well  say 
here,  where  it  is  most  required,  that  he  never  stood 
questioning  on  his  own  achievements,  and  he  could  not 
be  ransacked  by  the  most  adroit  endeavors  of  even  a 
warrantable  curiosity.  He  has  scores  of  times  turned  me 
from  the  narrative  of  his  experiences  to  such  points  of 
scientific  interest  as  they  suggested.  He  never  would 
"  sit"  a  moment  still  under  scrutiny,  or  allow  himself  to 
be  the  subject  of  conversation. 

This  fight  with  the  Mexican  generals  and  their  escort, 
and  the  subsequent  struggle  with  his  own  scoundrels, 
was  of  all  others  the  very  one  on  which  he  was  indis 
posed  to  speak.  His  personal  involvement,  his  danger, 
and  the  resulting  suffering,  which  put  him  under  the 
deepest  obligations  for  personal  kindness  to  the  very 
party  to  whom  he  had  been  in  the  same  hour  a  foe  at 
sword-point  and  a  friend  at  even  greater  risk,  and  after 
wards  an  object  of  care  and  solicitude  for  so  many  weary 
days,  mixed  his  emotions  only  too  painfully  for  agreeable 
reflection.  Moreover,  he  had  been  in  Mexico  long 
enough,  and  was  too  well  acquainted  with  the  men  and 
events  of  the  last  winter  of  that  war  to  feel  comfortable 
under  the  reflection  that  either  his  country  or  himself 
had  any  thing  to  answer  for  concerning  it. 

If  he  had  lived  a  century  after  that  experience,  he 
would  not  have  been  caught  doing  any  more  patriotism, 
unless  it  had  first  been  warranted  well  principled,  and 
its  governing  councils  were  somewhat  more  intent  upon 
manly  service  to  the  country  than  the  promotion  of  their 


CHARGES    AGAINST    DOMIN>GUES.  121 


own  paltry  interests.  His  after-life  fairly  expressed  this 
feeling,  for  it  was  resolutely  guided  by  it.  He  never 
sought  or  enjoyed  a  particle  of  Government  favor  from 
that  time  till  the  end  of  his  career. 

All  that  we  have  from  himself  on  this  matter  comes 
indirectly  but  clearly  enough  from  a  formal  charge 
which  he  made  against  Domingues  for  criminal  mal 
treatment  of  his  prisoners,  and  from  the  testimony  with 
which  he  fortified  his  claim  upon  the  War  Department 
for  compensation  for  his  horse  killed  in  the  defence 
which  he  made  for  those  prisoners  against  the  mur 
derous  assault  of  Domingues  and  his  bandits. 

The  statements  of  fact  made  in  these  documents  were 
carefully  prepared  from  the  testimony  ready  for  their 
legal  proof. 

The  accusation  against  Domingues  was  made  to  Gene 
ral  Butler,  then  acting  commander-in-chief :  General  Scott 
had  been  superseded  a  month  before  its  date.  It  ran 
thus : — 

"  CITY  OF  MEXICO,  March  14,  1848. 

"SiR: — On  the  6th  of  January,  while  proceeding  to 
the  city  of  Mexico,  accompanied  by  an  escort  of  lancers 
under  command  of  Colonel  Domingues,  we  fell  in  with  a 
body  of  Mexican  troops  near  Nopaluca. 

"  In  the  action  which  ensued,  Generals  Gaona  and  Tor- 
rejon.  Major  Gaona,  and  two  captains,  were  taken  prison 
ers,  together  with  thirty-eight  rank  and  file.  I  would  now 
respectfully  submit  to  your  notice  the  following  fact,  which 
I  am  able  to  sustain  by  satisfactory  testimony, — viz. : 


122  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


"  I.  That,  after  the  formal  surrender  of  the  Mexican 
party,  Domingues,  with  his  Lieutenants  Pallasios,  Rocher, 
and  others,  did,  in  cold  blood,  attempt  to  sabre  the 
prisoners. 

"II.  That  an  American  officer,  upon  interposing  his 
person  and  horse,  was  similarly  menaced  and  assaulted, — 
Deceiving  thereby  an  injury  of  a  most  serious  character 
and  losing  a  valuable  animal." 

[The  remaining  charges  were  for  robbing  the  prisoners 
of  their  personal  effects,  and  afterwards  exposing  them 
to  cruel  and  ignominious  treatment  on  their  way  to 
Puebla ;  and  for  a  second  attempt  to  shoot  them,  thirty- 
six  hours  after  the  surrender,  which  was  prevented  only 
by  a  resolute  resistance,  which  succeeded  by  intimidating 
the  ruffians  without  resort  to  force. 

The  accusation  concludes  by  demanding  the  punish 
ment  of  the  colonel  and  the  restoration  of  the  stolen 
property.] 

(Signed,)  "E.  K.  KANE, 

66 Marine  Detachment" 

The  horse-claim  furnishes  us  with  the  rest  of  the 
authentic  data  in  our  possession. 

Dr.  Kane  writes  to  the  Secretary  of  War  under 
date  of 

"PHILADELPHIA,  July  21,  1848. 

"  SIR  : — I  left  Perote  fortress  on  the  3d  of  January, 
1848,  under  orders  to  report  to  General  Scott  at  the 
city  of  Mexico.  My  escort  consisted  of  a  party  of 


THE    HORSE-CLAIM.  123 


lancers,  Mexicans  in  the  pay  of  the  United  States, 
commanded  by  Colonel  Domingues. 

"  On  the  6th  of  January,  at  a  place  intermediate  to 
Oyo  de  Agua  and  Nopaluca,  some  twenty-five  miles 
from  Puebla,  we  encountered  a  body  of  Mexicans  escort 
ing  Generals  Gaona  and  Torrejon  and  other  officers. 
After  a  short  action,  we  succeeded  in  routing  them, 
taking  forty-four  prisoners.  Circumstances  having  made 
the  two  generals  my  personal  prisoners,  they  claimed 
my  special  protection  against  Domingues's  band,  who 
sought  to  kill  them  after  the  surrender;  and  in  the 
effort  to  shield  them  against  a  charging  party,  headed 
by  Lieutenant  Kocher,  I  received  a  severe  wound  from  a 
lance  in  the  region  of  the  bladder,  my  horse  having 
immediately  before  been  struck  down  by  a  lance  under 
the  shoulder  from  the  same  party. 

"  I  succeeded  in  raising  him  up  and  keeping  him  till 
we  reached  Nopaluca,  when  he  sank  from  exhaustion. 
I  was  transferred  to  another  animal,  but,  finding  myself 
unable  to  ride,  was  placed  in  a  Mexican  car  with  the 
rest  of  the  wounded. 

"My  horse  was  forced  along  with  difficulty  by  my 
servant ;  but,  becoming  uncontrollable  while  making  an 
effort  to  drink  at  one  of  the  fountains  or  shallow  wells 
of  the  country,  in  the  Barris  San  Miguel,  he  was  so  far 
precipitated  into  it  as  from  his  weakness  to  be  unable  to 
recover. 

"  In  company  with  Lieutenant  Foster,  I  saw  his  body 
there  at  the  halt.  This  was  on  the  7th. 


124  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


"  On  reaching  Puebla,  I  was  attacked  very  dangerously 
by  congestive  typhus  fever,  in  consequence  of  my 
wound  and  the  exposure  which  followed  it. 

"  My  certificate,  and  the  affidavit  of  Lieutenant  Foster 
which  accompanies  it,  were  made  at  the  suggestion  of 
Major  Morris,  of  the  artillery, — then  acting  as  judge 
advocate, — as  soon  as  I  was  able  to  write. 
,  "  My  condition  at  the  time  may  serve  as  the  apology 
for  the  brevity  and  want  of  detail  of  those  papers. 

"  I  was  subsequently  carried  in  a  wagon  to  the  city 
of  Mexico,  where  I  reported,  and,  having  been  inspected 
by  the  surgeons,  was  ordered  to  the  United  States  as 
invalided.  I  therefore  saw  little  of  Lieutenant  Foster 
after  our  interview  at  Puebla,  and,  his  corps  having  been 
disbanded,  I  do  not  know  his  residence.  He  belonged  to 
the  Louisiana  mounted  men,  Captain  Lewis's  company. 
I  am  unable  for  this  reason  to  procure  a  supplemental 
affidavit  from  him,  and  he  was  the  only  American  officer 
on  the  field  with  me ;  but  I  shall  transmit  copies  of  this 
letter  to  the  principal  officers  of  the  United  States  whom 
I  found  in  command  at  Puebla,  and  shall  write  them  to 
verify  such  of  the  facts  as  have  come  to  their  knowledge 
either  from  personal  observation  or  official  position. 
"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir, 

"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

"  ELISHA  K.  KANE," 

"  To  the  Honorable  Secretary  of  War." 

In  answer  to  Dr.  Kane's  circular,  spoken  of  in  this 


WHAT    THE    HORSE-CLAIM    PROVED.  125 


letter  to  Mr.  Marcy,  Mr.  Morris,  at  the  time  (September 
13,  1848)  residing  in  New  Castle,  Delaware,  writes: — 

"...  Whilst  I  was  in  the  Government  Palaca 
Puebla  as  judge  advocate,  Lieutenant  Foster  made  oath 
before  me  of  the  fact  of  your  losing  your  horse  at  San 
Miguel  in  consequence  of  a  lance-wound  received  in  an 
engagement  with  the  enemy  which  took  place  between 
Oyo  de  Agua  and  Nopaluca.  Previous  to  that  affidavit, 
General  Gaona,  in  giving  me  an  account  of  the  battle, 
had  stated  that  through  your  instrumentality  alone  he 
and  General  Torrejon  were  saved  from  the  cold-blooded 
butchery  of  Domingues's  band ;  that  the  engagement  was 
a  severe  though  short  one ;  and  your  own  sufferings  in 
consequence  of  the  wound  you  received  in  your  exposure 
whilst  shielding  the  generals  are  facts  publicly  under 
stood  at  Puebla. 

"  The  circumstance  of  there  having  been  no  regular 
official  report  must  be  accounted  for  by  the  known 
character  of  the  commander  of  our  troops  on  that  occa 
sion  ;  but  this  omission,  as  I  look  upon  it,  has  nothing  to 
do  with  your  loss.  The  horse  was  positively  known  to 
have  been  killed  by  hostile  Mexicans,  and,  if  not  in 
pitched  battle,  the  case  loses  none  of  its  weight  from 
that  circumstance.  I  knew  the  animal  well,  and  his 
value  was  full  six  hundred  dollars.  He  would  readily 
have  brought  that  sum,  if  not  more,  at  even  a  forced  sale." 

Dr.  A.  B.  Campbell,  assistant  surgeon  United  States 
Volunteers,  under  date  Philadelphia,  November  3,  1848, 
answers  the  circular  : — "  In  reply  to  your  inquiry  as  to 


126  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


my  knowledge  of  the  circumstances  of  the  loss  of  your 
horse,  I  can  and  do  certify,  on  honor,  that  I  visited  you 
daily  during  the  time  you  lay  sick  at  the  house  of 
General  Gaona  with  typhus  fever,  the  result  of  the 
wound  received  in  the  action  with  the  Mexicans  in 
the  before-mentioned  engagement,  which  occurred  near 
Nopaluca  on  the  7th  of  January  last;  and,  moreover, 
that  both  during  the  time  of  your  illness,  and  subse 
quently,  I  have  heard  both  Generals  Gaona  and  Torrejon 
refer  to  the  fact  that  your  horse  h#d  been  killed  by  a 
lance-wound  in  the  action,  and  they  expressed  regret 
that  a  person  to  whom  they  owed  their  lives  should 
have  met  with  so  severe  a  loss. 

"Colonel  Gaona,  who  was  dangerously  wounded  in 
the  same  engagement,  repeatedly  described  to  me  the 
proud,  prancing  position  of  your  horse  when  he  was 
pierced  by  the  lance.  Indeed,  the  circumstances  of  his 
death  were  matters  of  town-talk  in  Puebla,  and  their 
omission  in  the  official  reports  is  only  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  debased  character  of  Domingues." 

The  testimony  of  Assistant  Surgeon  G.  E.  Cooper, 
United  States  army,  is  to  the  same  effect,  and  as  full. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COLONEL    CHILDS'     LETTER — COMPLIMENT    TO    GENERAL    GAONA — HIS 

REPLY — "THE  FLAG  OP  FREEDOM" — COMPLIMENTARY  SWORD — 
DR.  KANE'S  ACCEPTANCE — COLONEL  GAONA'S  WOUND — DR.  KANE'S 

PRISONERS — PALASIOS    SHOT — DOMINGUES    MISSED — HAND-TO-HAND 

CONFLICT — LOSS     AND    GAIN    UPON     "  RELIC" TO     HEAD-QUARTERS 

—  INVALIDED  —  HOMEWARD  —  DESPONDENCY  —  BUREAU-FAVOR  RE 
FRACTED — TREAD-MILL  REGIME — TO  THE  MEDITERRANEAN — LOCK 
JAW  —  DYING  EXPERIENCE RECUPERATION  —  COAST-SURVEY AN 

INTERLUDE — LADY  FRANKLIN'S  APPEAL — AMERICAN  RESPONSE — 
DR.  KANE  VOLUNTEERS — AMBITION'S  LAST  GASP — AMUSEMENT  AND 
OTHER  REFRESHMENTS OFF  TO  THE  ARCTIC. 

THE  young  countrymen  of  our  hero,  for  whom  this 
biography  is  principally  intended,  would  not  be  satisfied 
with  a  less  carefully  authenticated  narrative  of  the 
affair  at  Nopaluca,  nor  would  their  interest  in  it  be 
gratified  with  less  detail  than  we  are  indulging.  It 
deserves  to  be  written  in  the  tone  of  its  own  purely 
chivalric  spirit ;  but  Dr.  Kane,  as  a  boy  and  as  a  man, 
living  and  surviving,  was  and  is  a  doer  of  things,  a 
worker  in  facts ;  and  no  one  that  loves  him  may  violate 
his  own  simple,  manly  taste  in  reporting  him. 

At  Puebla,  upon  the  spot  where  the  facts  were  best 

known,  and  seven  weeks  after  the  occurrence,  when  the 

127 


128  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


incidents  had  full  time  to  settle  into  certainty,  the  best 
authorities  add  their  testimony  to  the  facts  of  this  story 
and  record  their  understanding  of  them. 

Colonel    Childs,   American     Commandant  at   Puebla,    to 
General  Gaona. 

"OFFICE    OF   THE   ClVIL   AND    MILITARY   GOVERNOR,"} 

PUEBLA,  February  9,  1848.  J 

"  GENERAL  : — For  more  than  thirty  days  I  have  been  an 
eye-witness  to  the  kind  and  affectionate  treatment  of  your 
self  and  amiable  family  to  Surgeon  Kane,  of  the  United 
States  navy,  bearer  of  despatches  to  the  general-in-chief. 

"  In  the  name  of  the  general-in-chief  of  the  American 
army,  and  especially  in  the  name  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy  of  the  United  States  of  America,  to  whose 
arm  of  the  service  this  officer  more  particularly  belongs, 
I  give  you  my  most  sincere  thanks. 

"It  appears  that  Dr.  Kane,  of  the  United  States 
navy,  was  marching  under  an  escort  of  a  native  spy- 
company,  when  a  detachment  of  Mexicans  who  were 
escorting  you  fell  in  with  said  company;  that  a  fight 
immediately  ensued,  resulting  in  the  capture  of  several 
Mexican  officers;  yourself  and  your  son,  Major  Gaona, 
were  of  the  number  of  the  captives,  the  latter  severely, 
and  for  a  time  considered  mortally,  wounded, — possibly 
by  the  hands  of  the  officer  to  whom  you  extended  such 
noble  hospitality.  It  further  appears  that  this  officer, 
after  the  excitement  of  the  battle  was  over,  and  you 
and  your  comrades  were  prisoners  of  war,  interposed 


COLONEL  CHILDS'  LETTER.          129 


his  person  to  save  the  lives  of  the  captured  officers; 
that  in  doing  so  he  received  from  one  of  the  spy-com 
pany  a  severe  blow  in  the  side  with  the  butt  of  a  lance, 
and  that  the  blow,  together  with  the  excessive  fatigue, 
produced  the  sickness  that  came  so  near  terminating  his 
earthly  career;  that  while  smarting  under  the  circum 
stances  which  occasioned  your  capture,  as  was  feared,  a 
mortal  wound  to  your  son,  and  you  at  the  same  time  a 
close  prisoner,  insisted  on  Dr.  Kane  being  taken  to  your 
house,  where  he  was  attended  by  your  amiable  and 
accomplished  wife  and  daughters  with  all  the  affection 
that  parental  kindness  and  sisterly  love  could  dictate. 
To  this  assiduous  attention,  smiled  upon  by  a  kind  Provi 
dence,  Dr.  Kane  is  indebted  for  the  pleasing  anticipation 
of  speedily  being  restored  to  the  service  of  his  country 
and  to  the  arms  of  an  affectionate  family. 

"To  this  noble  and  magnanimous  conduct  on  your 
part,  I  know  that  I  but  faintly  meet  the  responses  of  the 
general- in-chief,  and  the  Government  of  my  country, 
when  I  say  that  yourself  and  son  are  released  from  your 
paroles  unconditionally,  and  are  at  liberty  to  remain  in 
Puebla  or  to  go  wherever  else  it  may  be  your  pleasure. 

"As  the  commander  of  the  department  of  Puebla,  I 
tender  you  my  personal  thanks,  consideration,  and  esteem, 
and  have  the  honor  to  be  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"THOMAS  CHILDS, 

"Colonel  U.  S.  Army,  Corrig  Depart,  of  Puebla. 
"  To  Brig.  Gen'l  ANTONIO  GAONA, 
Mexican  Army,  Puebla." 


130  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


TRANSLATION  OF   GENERAL  GAONA'S  ANSWER. 

"PuEBLA,  February  12,  1848. 

"  COLONEL  : — In  due  reply  to  the  very  courteous  and 
kind  note  of  your  Excellency  under  date  of  the  9thinst., 
I  am  bound  to  say  that,  in  receiving  Dr.  Kane  into  our 
dwelling  and  affording  him  the  aid  which  the  lamentable 
state  of  his  health  required,  I  did  nothing  more  than 
to  comply  with  the  duties  of  hospitality  and  gratitude ; 
for  most  assuredly  I  shall  always  most  gratefully  acknow 
ledge  the  inestimable  services  rendered  by  Dr.  Kane  to 
myself  and  those  of  my  company,  in  saving  our  lives 
when  his  escort  threatened  us  with  death  after  taking  us 
prisoners. 

"  I  offer  a  thousand  thanks  to  Divine  Providence  for 
saving  the  life  of  the  much-esteemed  Dr.  Kane;  for  the 
opposite  result  would  have  been  a  most  deplorable  and 
fatal  blow  to  myself  and  my  family,  who  are  now 
rejoicing  in  the  expectation  that  ere  long,  as  you  say, 
he  may  once  more  have  the  gratification  of  embracing 
his  excellent  family,  and  being  restored  to  the  usefulness 
for  which  his  conduct  has  proved  him  fit  in  the  service 
of  his  nation,  which,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  continue  as 
grateful  towards  Dr.  Kane  as  I  shall  ever  feel  to  him,  as 
well  as  I  shall  to  the  general  commander-in-chief  and 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  for  the  distin 
guished  and  unparalleled  favor  with  which  it  has  been 
pleased  to  honor  me.  Tendering  at  the  same  time,  also, 
to  your  Excellency,  wkh  all  the  warmth  of  my  heart, 


"THE  FLAG  OF  FREEDOM."  131 


unbounded  thanks  for  your  kind  intervention  in  the 
matter,  praying  you  to  communicate  the  same  to  his 
Excellency,  with  my  sincere  gratitude,  and  also  to  the 
distinguished  officers  of  your  garrison,  from  whom  I 
have  received  so  many  attentions,  and  placing  in  the 
mean  time  at  your  disposition  my  person  and  best  ser 
vices,  allow  me  especially,  and  with  the  greatest  pleasure, 
to  tender  to  your  Excellency  assurances  of  the  grateful 
attachment  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe 
myself 

66  Your  obedient  servant, 

"ANTONIO  GAONA. 
"Senior  Colonel  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States  of  the 

North,  Commandant  of  the  Dept.  of  PueUa, 
"Don  THOMAS  CHILDS." 

This  correspondence  was  first  published  in  "The  Flag 
of  Freedom," — a  little  army  gazette  issued  every  Satur 
day  in  Puebla  for  the  use  of  the  American  troops  while 
they  occupied  the  place.  It  was  first  republished  in  the 
United  States  in  the  "  Doylestown  (Pennsylvania)  Demo 
crat,"  at  the  instance  of  a  returned  volunteer,  who,  in 
his  note  to  the  editor,  says,  among  other  things,  "  I  am 
personally  knowing  to  the  facts  which  led  to  the  corre 
spondence.  Dr.  Kane,  justly  the  hero  of  the  letter,  is  a 
son  of  Judge  Kane,  of  Philadelphia,  a  surgeon  of  the 
United  States  navy,  than  whom  a  braver  and  better 
officer  does  not  live."  "  The  Flag  of  Freedom"  has  also 
an  editorial  note  upon  the  correspondence,  endorsing  the 


132  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


commendation  of  Dr.  Kane's  chivalric  service  to  his 
Mexican  prisoners,  and  their  gratitude  to  him,  and 
applauding  the  handsome  acknowledgment  by  Colonel 
Childs. 

The  Wistar  party  which  he  surprised  by  his  desertion 
in  the  midst  of  their  festivities  in  the  autumn  of  1847, 
when  he  left  them  for  Washington  City  and  wrenched 
from  the  President  the  last  chance  for  distinguished 
service  in  the  Mexican  campaign,  had  a  more  pleasing 
surprise  when  they  met  a  year  afterwards,  reinforced 
by  the  most  distinguished  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  to 
honor  the  gallant  and  generous  improvement  he  had  made 
of  the  slender  opportunity  which  the  appointment  had 
afforded.  More  than  seventy  gentlemen  of  the  city,  the 
popularly-accredited  representatives  and  exponents  of 
its  spirit  and  feelings,  signalized  their  appreciation  of 
their  young  townsman's  achievement  in  the  manner 
which  the  following  correspondence  displays  : — 

"  PHILADELPHIA,  February  8,  1849. 

"To  Dr.  ELISHA  KENT  KANE,  United  States  Navy: 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — We  are  honored  in  being  permitted  by 
your  friends  and  fellow-citizens  of  Philadelphia  to  offer 
in  their  name,  for  your  acceptance,  the  accompanying 
sword. 

"  This  modest  testimonial  is  tendered  as  a  record  of 
their  high  appreciation  of  your  conduct  in  the  service 
of  our  country,  whose  proud  boast  is  that  their  sons,  in 
every  grade,  have  proved  themselves  gloriously  prompt 


COMPLIMENTARY    SWORD.  133 


in  every  emergency.  Your  casual  encounter  with  the 
enemy  in  the  Mexican  campaign,  as  romantic  as  unex 
pected,  was  crowned,  as  an  incidental  exploit,  with  the 
distinction  due  to  gallantry,  skill,  and  success,  and  was 
hallowed  in  the  flush  of  victory  by  the  noblest  humanity 
to  the  vanquished. 

"The  eloquent  gratitude  of  your  prisoners,  and  the 
honorable  approval  of  your  superior,  will  be  found  in 
the  archives  of  your  country ;  and  those  who  surround 
your  own  home  in  your  native  city  claim  to  record  their 
sense  of  your  courage,  conduct,  and  humanity  in  the 
memorial  now  offered. 

"With  cordial  wishes  for  your  happiness  in  life  and 
your  preservation  to  the  service  you  adorn,  we  have  the 
honor  to  be 

"  Your  fellow-citizens, 

"  T.  DUNLAP, 

"  JOHN  M.  HEAD, 
"N.  CHAPMAN, 
" Committee  of  the  Citizens  of  Philadelphia" 


DR.  KANE'S  REPLY. 


"  UNITED  STATES  SHIP  SUPPLY,  "I 
NORFOLK,  VA.,  February  10,  1849.  / 

"GENTLEMEN: — Your  very  courteous  note  on  behalf 
of  some  of  our  fellow-citizens,  and  the  magnificent 
offering  it  refers  to,  reached  me  just  as  I  was  leaving 
home.  They  are  altogether  almost  painfully  inappro 
priate  to  any  services  of  mine.  But  I  shall  cherish 


134  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


them  as  memorials  of  regard  from  men  whom  I  have 
always  been  taught  to  honor,  and  whose  kind  estimation 
would  be  an  ample  reward  even  for  the  meritorious. 
"I  am,  gentlemen,  very  gratefully  and  truly, 
"  Your  friend  and  servant, 

"E.  K.  KANE. 
"  THOMAS  DUNLAP,  Esq., 
"Hon.  JOHN  M.  HEAD, 
"N.  CHAPMAN,  M.D., 

"  Committee" 

Determined  neither  to  write  nor  compile  the  narrative 
of  this  gallant  and  generous  exploit,  but  merely  and 
simply  to  collate  its  authenticated  facts,  it  is  never 
theless  due  to  the  reader  to  supply  some  of  the  incidents 
which  are  not  in  the  record,  but  are  not  the  less  suffi 
ciently  well  ascertained. 

The  wound  which  Colonel  Gaona  received  in  the 
action  is  stated  as  inflicted  "possibly  by  the  hands  of  the 
officer"  whom  the  family  were  at  the  time  nursing  under 
the  same  roof  with  their  suffering  son.  There  was  really 
no  uncertainty  about  it;  but  Colonel  Childs  covers  the 
fact,  which  so  much  enhanced  the  kindness  of  General 
Gaona,  with  a  delicacy  of  doubt  which  nobody  enter 
tained,  because  all  parties  wished  it  otherwise  and 
avoided  all  unnecessary  allusion  to  it. 

The  "  circumstances  which  had  made  the  two  generals 
Dr.  Kane's  personal  prisoners"  were  that  they  had  sur 
rendered  to  him  personally. 


LOSS    AND    GAIN    UPON    "RELIC."  135 


In  the  desperate  defence  which  he  made  for  his  pri 
soners  when  they  were  attacked,  after  the  surrender,  by 
Domingues  and  his  two  lieutenants,  one  of  them,  Pala- 
sios,  received  a  shot  from  the  doctor's  pistol ;  and  Domin 
gues  would  have  taken  another,  if  the  hurry  of  the 
conflict  had  allowed  a  little  better  aim. 

"  The  proud,  prancing  position  of  his  horse  when  he 
was  pierced  by  the  lance,"  described  by  Colonel  Gaona 
to  Dr.  Campbell,  covers  the  fact  that  that  lance-thrust 
was  aimed  at  the  rider,  and  helps  to  show  how  close  and 
desperate  the  brief  conflict  was,  and  at  what  risk  it  was 
made  successful. 

On  the  4th  of  January,  1849,  the  War  Department 
awarded  payment  for  the  horse.  Two  hundred  dollars 
cannot  be  called  compensation,  especially  after  it  was 
withheld  for  a  year,  and  taxed,  besides,  with  as  much 
trouble  to  the  applicant  as  was  well  worth  the  whole 
sum.  But  that  trouble  has  paid  by  giving  us  the  best- 
proved  piece  of  history  that  ever  was  challenged  on  the 
ground  of  its  romantic  incidents. 

We  have  not  relieved  this  story  of  the  marvellous, — 
a  professor  of  mathematics  could  not  do  that, — but  we 
have  faithfully  disenchanted  the  recital,  and  may  now 
remit  the  bare-bone  facts  to  the  fancy  of  the  readers 
whom  we  have  held  so  long  impatient  of  our  con 
scientious  dullness. 

His  illness  at  Puebla  was  so  severe  that  he  was  at  one 
time  reported  dead  to  his  friends  at  home,  on  authority 


136  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


held  unquestionable  for  many  days  before  the  relief  of 
better  news  arrived. 

He  was  to  have  started  for  the  city  of  Mexico  on  the  16th 
of  February;  but  learning,  as  he  states  it,  providentially, 
that  four  hundred  mounted  men  under  Padre  Jaurata 
were  waiting  for  them,  the  train,  already  on  the  march, 
was  ordered  back,  and  they  set  out  on  the  18th  with  a 
larger  force.  On  the  25th,  at  St.  Martin,  he  writes : — 
"  The  good  effects  of  my  Mexican  interference  mingle 
themselves  with  the  bad.  I  am  twenty  miles  from 
Puebla,  at  the  base  of  Popocatepetl, — the  rain  falling, 
the  wind  howling,  and  some  two  thousand  poor  devils 
shivering  under  their  tent-poles.  I  am  with  General 
Torrejon,  snugly  housed,  warmly  welcomed,  and  await 
ing  a  call  to  supper." 

From  Mexico  he  wrote  : — "  My  movements  unknown : 
should  the  doctors,  as  they  threaten,  order  me  home,  I 
will  apply  for  a  leave,  only  for  the  armistice,  so  as  to 
return  to  save  my  honor  and  be  in  at  the  death."  Again, 
on  the  3d  of  March  : — "  My  surgeons  have  declared  this 
poor  carcass  unfit  for  duty;  and  yet  the  carcass  will  not 
leave  Mexico."  On  the  14th  of  March,  he  says  : — "  You 
are  aware  that  the  surgeons  have  condemned  me ;  their 
opinion  is  formally  written  out,  signed  by  the  superin 
tendent  of  the  hospitals,  and  by  the  surgeon-general  of 
the  army;  but,  in  spite  of  this,  Mexico  I  will  not  leave 
until  I  can  do  so  clearly, — until  the  armistice  is  more 
definite  or  peace  is  more  prospective." 

The  armistice  satisfied  him;  the  opportunities  of  the 


INVALIDED  —  HOMEWARD.  137 


service  were  gone,  and  on  the  8th  of  April  he  was  at 
Vera  Cruz,  on  his  way  home.  His  report  here  has  some 
telling  points : — 

"  On  my  homeward  trail,  and  but  seven  days  from  the 
great  city!  An  escort  of  thirty  dragoons,  a  four-horse 
hospital-ambulance,  and  much  sympathy,  accompanied 
me  in  my  forced  retreat  from  the  scene  of  my  hopes.  .  .  . 
My  leave  is  but  for  three  weeks  from  the  10th  of  April, 
— my  object  a  surgical  operation, — my  health  such  as 
to  require  all  the  kindly  care  of  the  home  to  which  I 
again  return,  a  broken-down  man.  My  hair  would  be 
gray,  but  that  I  have  no  hair.  My  hopes  would  be 
particularly  small,  but  that  I  have  no  hopes.  .  .  .  Expect 
never  to  see  me  again,  and  my  luck  may  prevent  your 
being  disappointed. . .  .  Perhaps  the  fact  of  having  saved 
six  lives  may  make  me  a  more  important  person  in  your 
eyes.  It  was  a  dear  bargain;  but  I  do  not  regret  it.  ... 
My  very  dearest  love  to  mother.  Tell  her  that,  although 
I  write  so  thanklessly,  I  believe  myself  to  be  a  better 
man.  My  wig,  tell  B ,  is  a  delicate  auburn." 

He  suffered  terribly  from  his  lance-wound  after  his 
return.  In  July  he  was  too  ill  to  attend  to  any  business. 
His  condition  in  the  autumn  made  him  willing  to  ask 
the  Department  for  the  favor  of  an  appointment  at  the 
Philadelphia  Navy- Yard. 

The  question  was  raised  whether  the  post  could  be 
given  to  an  assistant-surgeon.  Dr.  Kane's  friends  in  the 
medical  corps  bestirred  themselves:  they  were  success 
ful  !  The  appointing  officer  was  delighted  to  learn  from 


138  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


the  head  of  the  bureau  that  the  clever  thing  could  be 
done,  and  without  the  least  delay  he  did  appoint — 
another  man  to  the  post! 

Dr.  Kane  never  fattened  on  favoritism.  With  the  grand 
exception  of  the  Honorable  John  P.  Kennedy,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  when  he  was  preparing  for  his  second 
Arctic  Expedition,  he  was  left  at  perfect  moral  liberty 
to  be  as  ungrateful  for  nothing  to  the  functionaries  of  the 
Government  as  he  might  please  to  feel. 

Dr.  Kane  was  not  a  West-Pointer:  he  was  only  an 
assistant  navy  surgeon;  and  it  was  not  regular  nor 
orderly  for  him  to  be  always  dislocating  the  honors  of 
the  service  by  illustrating  it  above  his  degree. 

In  January,  1849,  we  find  him  at  Norfolk,  Virginia, 
attached  to  the  store-ship  Supply,  Commander  Arthur 
Sinclair, — destination  Lisbon,  the  Mediterranean,  and 
Rio  Janeiro.  The  ship  sailed  in  February. 

At  sea,  "beating  tediously  between  Spezzia  and  Gib 
raltar,"  on  the  16th  of  May,  he  wrote  to  one  of  his 
friends.  The  letter  has  matter  in  it  of  much  value  in 
making  up  a  medical  judgment  upon  the  disease  which, 
never  wholly  leaving  him,  was  at  last  fatal : — 

"I  have  been  sick,  and,  indeed,  am  not  yet  well.  .  .  . 
The  good  people  at  home — God  bless  them! — cannot 
realize,  perhaps,  that  a  man  riding  wild  horses  and  pre 
paring  for  medical  examinations  may  yet  need  every 
hygienic  influence  to  keep  him  from  malignant  disease. 
Yet  so  it  is;  and  I  only  blame  myself  for  not  acting  up 
to  my  own  convictions.  The  fact  is  that  I  did  wrong  in 


LOCKED-JAW.  139 


going  to  sea.  The  exposure  and  wear  and  tear  have 
proved  too  much  for  a  constitution  already  enfeebled  by 
Africa  and  Mexico ;  and  now  the  same  miserable  con 
trolling  tyrant  which  has  kept  you  so  long  a  slave  is 
about  to  extend  his  claws  over  me.  The  '  sentimental 
buck'  is  fast  lapsing  into  a  confirmed  valetudinarian! 

"I  do  not  state  all  this  in  a  puling,  unmanly  spirit 
of  useless  regret,  but  because  to  you,  my  confidential 
friend,  I  feel  that  the  naked  truth  is  a  sort  of  duty. 
Mexico,  or  indeed  any  other  scheme  of  life,  is  denied  me, 
save  the  navy;  and,  if  my  cough  does  not  leave  me,  I 
shall  have  to  leave  home  as  soon  as  its  blessings  are 
tasted,  and  spend  my  winters  in  the  tropics. 

"Tell  my  father — the  dear  judge,  of  whom  I  often 
times  think,  and  for  whom  in  vague,  spirit-yearning 
petition  I  often  pray — that  I  really  believe  I  behaved 
like  a  man  when  the  first  spasm  of  tetanus  seized  me : 
I  certainly  behaved  like  a  medical  man.  It  was  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening :  I  had  for  some  hours  had 
a  stiffness  in  the  muscles  of  the  neck,  but  locked-jaw 
never  struck  me ;  when,  suddenly,  a  sense  of  tightness, 
as  if  every  flesh-fibre  of  my  body  was  a  fiddle-string  and 
some  hosts  of  devils  were  tuning  me  up,  came  over  me. 
This  lasted  a  fraction  of  a  minute,  and  was  gone.  Of 
these  foretastes  of  Tophet  I  had  four  during  the  night, 

and  three  on  shore ;  and  I  give  you  my  word,  dear , 

that  I  had  no  more  hope  of  ever  seeing  home.  There 
was  an  utter,  unqualified  conviction  of  inevitable  death. 
Once  before,  during  the  shipwreck  of  the  Fashion,  I  had 


140  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


the  same  feeling,  but  in  a  less  degree.  This  feeling  was 
neither  fear,  nor  penitential  reminiscence,  nor  unprofit 
able  analysis  of  the  dreamy  after-time,  but  simple  concen 
trated  sadness.  I  thought  of  all  of  you,  including  poor 
Gaona,  and  of  myself  only  as  connected  with  you. 
Once,  thinking  I  was  about  to  choke,  I  penned  a  '  God 
bless  you !' — which,  as  an  instance  of  calligraphy  during  a 
tetanic  spasm,  I  enclose  for  Pat's  museum.  That  done, 
I  a  second  time  bled  myself  and  fainted,  and,  according 
to  the  shore-doctors  who  saw  me  next  morning,  saved 
my  life.  For  my  own  part,  placing  Providence  and  the 
dispensations  primero,  I  look  upon  opium  as  my  sheet- 
anchor." 

Writing  again,  three  days  after,  in  a  spirit  of  marked 
consideration  for  the  feelings  of  his  friends  at  home,  he 
reports  himself  well  again.  In  his  own  phrase,  he  says, 
"  That  remarkably  poor  devil,  your  son,  although,  in  com 
mon  with  the  weakest  and  the  strongest  of  the  race  to 
which  he  belongs,  surrounded  by  hostile  elements,  has, 
as  a  great  inherent  quality  of  his  splendid  organization, 
a  principle  of  resistance  which  almost  makes  him  think 
himself  '  reserved  for  better  things/  ....  I  lost  forty 
ounces  of  blood,  and  took  twenty-two  grains  of  opium, 
and  then,  bleached  to  the  color  of  city  milk, — a  pale 
whitewash  tinge, — got  up  to  thank  Heaven  for  the  pros 
pect,  however  distant,  of  seeing  again  my  very  well 
and  dearly  beloved  mother." 

The  lock-jaw,  and  the  debility  which  followed,  made 
even  a  Mediterranean  cruise  a  hard  one  to  him. 


RECUPERATION.  141 


They  had  a  prosperous  voyage  to  Kio,  however,  reach 
ing  that  port  on  the  29th  June.  There  he  "went  out 
into  the  fields,  drank  milk,  saw  kindly  faces,  and  grew 
better." 

The  Supply  arrived  in  Norfolk  towards  the  close  of 
September.  In  October  he  was  at  home,  recuperating. 

In  February,  1850,  he  completed  his  thirtieth  year. 
For  the  last  seven  he  had  been  pursuing  his  destiny 
with  fiery-footed  haste,  and  it  had  evaded  him !  January 
had  crept  away  in  eventless  tranquillity :  he  had  joined 
the  coast-survey  and  subsided  into  routine-duty  in  the 
service.  How  he  bore  this  calm  in  the  centre  of  his 
whirlwind  is  not  recorded.  He  perhaps  thought  within 
himself  that  he  had  submitted.  That  he  had  turned  his 
ambition  out  to  play,  and  almost  abandoned  himself  to 
poetry,  is  openly  betrayed  by  a  letter  dated 

"1st  of  May,  SHORT'S  HOTEL! 

"  Who  ever  heard  of  Short's  Hotel  ?  A  perfect  little 
paradise,  looking  out  upon  the  Bay  of  Mobile,  and  con 
taining  a  four-post  bedstead.  Destitute  of  paint  or 
whitewash  or  wash-basin  is  Short's  Hotel ;  and  yet  it  is 
the  dearest,  sweetest  little  abode  of  honeysuckled  com 
fort  that  ever  hung  from  the  boughs  of  a  live-oak. 
Short's  Hotel  is  about  the  size  of  our  discarded  wash- 
house.  Short's  Hotel  floats  on  a  velvet-lawned  magnolia- 
studded  clearing  on  the  bluff  bank.  Short's  Hotel,  to 
give  the  climax  to  its  beauties,  is  completely  invisible. 
The  limbs  of  a  great  gnarled  live-oak,  all  covered  with 


142  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


long  gray  moss,  overhang  it  like  the  reliquary  of  a 
patriarch;  and,  save  when  the  sea-breezes  thrust  away 
the  venerable  screen,  you  would  think  yourself  looking 
~at  a  thicket  of  Cherokee  roses.  And  here,  dear  fellow, 
am  I. 

"I  wish,  dear,  sick,  working  friend,  that  you  could 
enjoy  the  climate,  which  just  at  this  moment  is  preach 
ing  to  me  its  sermon  of  thankfulness;  for  the  only 
sermons  that  now  reach  my  gizzard-plated  bowels  are 
those  of  the  dear  outer  world  of  nature.  Summer,  of  a 
perennial  but  sluggish  sort,  is  mellowing  every  thing 
around  me.  God  bless  you  ! 

"The  breeze  comes  to  me  purple-stained  with  the 
sunset,  rippling  over  the  bay  with  an  eloquent  crescendo 
of  wavelets  and  a  cadenza  of  tiny  surf.  God  bless  the 
breeze,  too,  for  I  know  that  that  great  jungle  of  glaucous- 
leafed  magnolia  (t'other  side  of  Short's)  would  stifle  me 
with  a  sirocco  of  fragrance  could  it  drive  its  perfume  to 
leeward.  Cows,  too,  have  left  their  impress, — the  specific 
mark  of  cow-some-where,  and  I  smell  a  presentiment  of 
milk  for  supper." 

For  two  years  before  this  date  the  live  world  had  been 
moved  to  its  depths  by  the  appeals  of  Lady  Franklin  for 
the  rescue  of  her  husband  and  his  companions  in  th( 
search  for  the  Northwest  Passage,  of  whom  no  tidings 
had  been  heard  since  August,  1845.  She  had  addressee 
President  Taylor,  in  April,  1849,  soliciting  aid  from  our 
Government.  About  midsummer,  Sir  Francis  Beaufor 


LADY  FRANKLIN'S  APPEAL.  143 


had,  on  the  authority  of  rumor,  announced  to  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  that  the  President  was  about  to  fit 
out  two  ships  for  the  search ;  but  that  hope  had  failed 
under  Mr.  Clayton's  letter  promising  only  that  "what 
ever  can  be  done  to  aid  the  search  by  spreading  informa 
tion  of  the  reward  offered  by  Parliament  among  our 
whalers  shall  be  done,"  and  the  balance  in  prayers  and 
sympathies.  Lady  Franklin,  with  that  tenacity  of  pur 
pose  and  desperation  of  hope  which  have  survived  seven 
years  more  of  disappointment,  renewed  her  prayer  to 
General  Taylor  in  December,  1849;  and  on  the  4th  of 
January  he  transmitted  the  correspondence  to  Congress, 
recommending  "  an  appropriation  for  fitting  out  an  expe 
dition  to  proceed  in  search  of  the  missing  ships,  with 
their  officers  and  crews." 

The  response  of  the  nation  had  been  given  with  the 
heartiest  good-will.  The  general  expectation  had  almost 
mistaken  itself  for  an  accomplished  fact.  Sympathy, 
gallantry,  national  honor,  had  combined  and  warmed 
themselves  into  enthusiasm ;  and  the  public  with  one 
voice  held  the  Government  committed  to  the  enterprise. 

No  one,  in  or  out  of  the  service,  had  felt  the  impulse 
and  asserted  the  duty  more  ardently  than  Dr.  Kane.  He 
volunteered  his  service,  pressed  his  application,  urged 
the  petition  by  every  means  in  his  power,  and  had  been 
compelled  to  abandon  the  hope.  On  the  24th  of  March, 
1850,  at  Mobile,  he  wrote  to  a  friend: — "The  Depart 
ment  has  given  my  '  volunteer'  the  slighting  answer  of 
silence,  leaving  me  the  simple  satisfaction  of  having  done 


144  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


as  I  did  do.  Now,  however,  as  I  am  probably  for  months 
a  coast-survey  incumbent,  your  health,  morale,  and  every 
thing  else  lead  me  to  press  upon  you  my  invitation. 

"Come  to  me  by  the  quiet  valley  of  turbulent  waters. 
.  .  .  This  quiet  sunshine  would  not  be  uncongenial :  you 
could  stuff  alligators,  read  books,  drink  claret,  or  eat 
French  dinners,  just  as  it  pleased  you.  ...  By  the  latter 
days  of  June  we  travel  northward;  stopping  at  the 
Havana,  Charleston,  Norfolk,  and  then  journeying,  you 
and  myself,  from  Boston  to  Philadelphia  by  the  rail 
roads." 

But,  all  unaware  of  the  fact,  he  had  reached  the  point 
which  evenly  divided  his  life  of  desperate  adventure  and 
manly  endurance  into  two  weeks  of  years  by  a  brief  Sab 
bath  of  rest, — an  isthmus  of  ease  smoothly  linking  two 
continents  of  effort,  with  the  most  massive  and  mountain 
ous  before  him :  he  had  abandoned  himself  to  his  fate  as 
his  last  disappointment  had  colored  it,  and  was  pleasantly 
relieving  its  tediousness  with  the  lyrics  of  elegant  leisure, 
when,  ain  such  an  hour  as  he  knew  not,"  it  sprang  upon 
him  like  a  strong  man  armed,  and  carried  him  into  the 
field  of  a  conflict  fitting  his  necessities  and  fulfilling  his 
hopes  and  his  life. 

His  "personal  narrative"  of  the  first  "United  States 
Grinnell  Expedition"  opens  in  the  tone  of  this  surprise, 
just  as  a  whirlwind  breaks  into  the  calm  of  a  tropic 
May  day :— "On  the  12th  of  May,"  he  says,  "while  bath 
ing  in  the  tepid  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  I  received 
one  of  those  courteous  little  epistles  from  Washington 


OFF    TO    THE     ARCTIC.  145 


which  the  electric  telegraph  has  made  so  familiar  to  naval 
officers.  It  detached  me  from  the  coast-survey,  and 
ordered  me  to  '  proceed  forthwith  to  New  York  for  duty 
upon  the  Arctic  Expedition/ 

"Seven  and  a  half  days  later,  I  had  accomplished  my 
overland  journey  of  thirteen  hundred  miles,  and  in  forty 
hours  more  our  squadron  was  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
United  States :  the  Department  had  calculated  my  travel 
ling-time  to  a  nicety." 


10 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FRANKLIN'S  VOYAGES — SEARCH-EXPEDITIONS — UNITED  STATES  GRIN- 
NELL  EXPEDITION — LIEUTENANT  DE  HAVEN — ARCTIC  ROSE-PLUCKING 

— THE  CAPTAIN'S  DOUBTS — THE  DOCTOR'S  DECISION — THE  PERSONAL 
NARRATIVE — HORRORS  OF  AUTHORSHIP — DIETETICS  AND  DRUGS — 

PUBLIC  LECTURING EXPEDITIONS  OF  1852 — ESTIMATE  OF  BUTTONS 

— SECOND  VOYAGE  POSTPONED — LITTLE  WILLIE — IN  MEMORIAM — 

GRINNELL  LAND— ARROWSMITH  AND  THE  ADMIRALTY — ADJOURNED 
JUSTICE — DR.  KANE   AND   COLONEL   FORCE — COMITY   AND    EQUITY. 

SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN'S  first  voyage  to  the  Polar  regions 
was  made  as  lieutenant  commanding  the  Trent,  under 
Captain  Buchan,  of  the  Dorothea,  in  1818;  his  second 
was  the  great  overland  journey  with  Dr.  Richardson,  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Copper-Mine  River,  in  1819;  his  third, 
to  the  same  field  of  effort,  in  1825;  and  he  sailed  for  his 
fourth -and  last  voyage  on  the  25th  of  May,  1845,  with 
a  crew  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  men  and  officers, 
in  search  of  the  Northwest  Passage  from  Baffin's  Bay  to 
the  Pacific  by  way  of  Lancaster  Sound.  His  ships,  the 
Erebus  and  Terror,  were  met  by  a  whaler  in  the  upper 
waters  of  the  bay,  moored  to  an  iceberg,  waiting  for  an 
opening  in  "the  pack,"  on  the  26th  of  July  following: 

they  have  not  been  seen  since. 
146 


SEARCH-EXPEDITIONS.  147 


Early  in  1848,  three  expeditions  were  despatched  by 
the  British  Government  in  search  of  the  missing  vessels : 
one,  a  marine  expedition,  by  way  of  Behring's  Strait, 
consisting  of  the  Herald  and  Plover,  in  command  of 
Captain  Kellett  and  Captain  Moore ;  another,  an  overland 
and  boat  party,  conducted  by  Sir  John  Eichardson,  to 
descend  the  Mackenzie  River;  the  third,  two  ships,  the 
Enterprise  and  Investigator,  under  command  of  Sir 
James  Clarke  Ross,  through  Lancaster  Sound  and  Bar 
row's  Strait.  An  admirably  devised  and  vigorously 
endeavored  plan  of  search,  but  entirely  unsuccessful. 
Before  the  beginning  of  1850,  they  had  all  abandoned 
it  without  having  reached  even  the  threshold  of  the  field 
to  be  explored. 

These  failures  only  aroused  the  sympathy  and  stimu 
lated  the  enthusiasm  of  England  to  endeavor  the  rescue 
of  the  long-lost  explorers.  Parliament,  in  March,  1849, 
offered  a  reward  of  .£20,000  for  the  discovery  and 
effectual  relief  of  the  missing  ships,  or  £10,000  for  the 
discovery  and  effectual  relief  of  any  of  the  crew  of  the 
vessels,  or  for  ascertaining  their  fate. 

Two  whale-ships  were  put  upon  the  search  in  1849  : 
they  failed  as  badly  as  the  more  promising  expeditions 
of  the  year  before. 

The  anxiety  and  the  effort  grew  by  these  disappoint 
ments,  and,  in  1850,  England  sent  a  fleet  to  the  rescue, 
— the  Enterprise  and  Investigator,  by  Behring's  Strait, 
the  Resolute  and  Assistance  and  two  screw-propellers, 
the  Pioneer  and  Intrepid,  by  Baffin's  Bay ;  and,  joined  to 


148  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


these,  the  veteran  Sir  John  Ross  went  out  in  a  schooner 
provided  by  public  subscription;  and  Lady  Franklin 
herself  equipped  two  others,  a  ship  of  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  tons,  bearing  her  own  name,  and  a  clipper- 
brig  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  tons,  named  the  Sophia; 
and  still  another,  of  which  she  bore  two-thirds  of  the 
expense, — a  schooner-rigged  craft  of  ninety  tons.  Besides 
all  this,  Dr.  Rae,  under  direction  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  undertook  the  same  year  to  complete  an  un 
accomplished  part  of  the  land-exploration  of  1848,  from 
the  northern  coast  of  America.  In  all,  ten  British  vessels, 
manned  by  daringly  adventurous  crews,  commanded  by 
veteran  ice-masters,  and  carrying  a  gallant  band  of  volun 
teers  to  the  scene  of  trial  and  danger. 

Our  own  Government,  urged  by  a  generous  public 
sentiment,  and  stimulated  by  the  offer  of  two  vessels  for 
the  service  by  Mr.  Grinnell,  of  New  York,  went  into  the 
adventure  with  zeal  and  liberality. 

By  joint  resolution  of  tlie  two  houses  of  Congress, 
passed  2d  May,  1850,  the  President  was  authorized  "to 
accept  and  attach  to  the  navy  two  vessels  offered  by 
Henry  Grinnell,  Esq.,  to  be  sent  to  the  Arctic  seas  in 
search  of  Sir  John  Franklin  and  his  companions.  The 
President  may  detail  from  the  navy  such  commissioned 
and  warrant  officers  and  seamen  as  may  be  necessary  for 
said  expedition,  and  who  may  be  willing  to  engage  in  it. 
The  said  officers  and  men  shall  be  furnished  with  suitable 
rations  for  a  period  not  exceeding  three  years,  and  shall 
have  the  use  of  such  necessary  instruments  as  the  Depart- 


LIEUTENANT    DE    HAVEN.  149 


merits  can  provide.  The  said  vessels,  officers,  and  men 
shall  be  in  all  respects  under  the  laws  and  regulations 
of  the  navy  of  the  United  States  until  their  return,  when 
the  vessels  shall  be  delivered  to  Henry  Grinnell.  Pro 
vided,  that  the  United  States  shall  not  be  liable  to  any 
claim  for  compensation  in  case  of  the  loss,  damage, 
deterioration,  use,  or  risk  of  the  vesssels." 

These  vessels  were  two  little  hermaphrodite  brigs, — 
the  "Advance,"  of  one  hundred  and  forty-four  tons,  and 
the  "Rescue,"  of  ninety-one. 

Dr.  Kane,  whose  rank  was  now  passed  assistant-sur 
geon,  U.S.N.,  went  in  the  Expedition  as  senior  medical 
officer:  his  berth  was  aboard  of  the  Advance.  Dr. 
Yreeland,  assistant-surgeon,  was  assigned  to  the  Rescue. 

Lieutenant  De  Haven,  the  commander,  had  seen  the 
same  kind  of  service  as  that  now  before  him,  in  the 
Wilkes  Expedition  of  1838  to  the  South  Polar  conti 
nent, — a  capital  officer,  a  daring  sailor,  with  a  dash  of 
extra  spirit  for  exigencies  that  more  than  once  surprised 
the  hardiest  of  his  competitors  in  the  struggles  of  the 
Northern  Ocean.  In  one  of  their  joint  scrapes  among 
the  hummocks  of  Barrow's  Strait,  with  the  British  tars 
holding  their  breath  in  strained  expectancy,  he  gave 
them  a  taste  of  his  quality  that  won  for  him  on  the  spot 
the  appellation  of  the  "  Mad  Yankee."  With  seven  feet 
of  solid  oak  in  the  bow  of  his  brig,  he  used  her  as  a 
battering-ram  against  the  ice-rafts  and  opened  a  track  for 
them.  They  did  justice  to  him.  Lieutenant  Osborn,  of 
the  Pioneer,  says  of  him  and  his  men,  "If  progress 


150  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


depended  alone  upon  skill  and  intrepidity,  our  go-ahead 
friends  would  have  given  us  a  hard  tussle  for  the  laurels 
to  be  won  in  the  Arctic  regions."  The  subsequent  his 
tory  of  the  American  cruisers  shows  that,  if  the  longest 
and  hardest  tussle  with  the  Arctic  ice  on  record  may 
decide,  they  really  won  the  honors  of  the  combined  expe 
ditions  of  that  year.  But,  however  the  awards  for  exer 
tion  and  endurance  may  be  distributed,  the  American 
volunteers  had  been  beforehand  in  securing  one  hand 
some  advantage  over  their  competitors  in  the  search, 
which  Osborn  states  in  this  way: — "As  a  proof  of  the 
disinterestedness  of  their  motives,  men  as  well  as  officers, 
I  was  charmed  to  hear  that,  before  sailing  from  America, 
they  had  signed  a  bond  not  to  claim,  under  any  circum 
stances,  the  £20,000  reward  the  British  Government  had 
offered  for  Franklin's  rescue :  we,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  had 
acted  differently.  America  had  plucked  a  rose  from  our 
brows."  Mercury,  chloroform,  and  proof-spirits  may 
freeze  in  the  Arctic  zone,  but  hearts  as  warm  as  these 
would  stand  the  cold  of  the  North  Pole  itself. 

The  commander  and  the  doctor  of  this  gallant  little 
crew  met  for  the  first  time  at  the  navy-yard  of  Brooklyn 
the  day  before  they  set  sail.  De  Haven  had  never  heard 
of  Kane;  and  he  confesses  that  when  he  took  his  measure, 
as  a  captain  looks  at  the  men  he  must  depend  upon  in 
great  emergencies,  he  thought  he  was  not  the  pattern 
for  the  place.  If  he  had  had  but  the  time,  he  would 
have  asked  the  Department  to  exchange  him  for  a  more 
promising  man ;  but  that  was  impossible,  and  he  con- 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  DOUBTS.  151 


eluded  that  the  battered  little  body  would  have  enough 
of  it  by  the  time  they  should  reach  Greenland,  and  then 
he  could  send  him  back. 

De  Haven,  you  are  a  fine  fellow,  but  you  haven't  the 
infallible  measure  for  men.  That  slight  figure  has  a 
preternaturally  big  heart  in  it;  and  the  "soul,  mind, 
and  spirit"  of  the  man  is  still  beyond  your  estimate, 
though  your  admiration  for  his  manliness  now  is  as  much 
as  your  own  stout  frame  can  well  bear. 

To  sea  they  went;  and  the  trial  began.  That  inevitable 
sea-sickness  which  persecuted  the  doctor  like  a  demon, 
laid  him  up  forthwith,  to  work  away  at  the  feat  of  turn 
ing  himself  inside  out  at  every  pitch  of  the  brig. 

After  thirty-one  days  of  this  exercise,  they  touched  at 
Whale-Fish  Island,  and,  pat  to  the  purpose  so  benevolently 
entertained,  and  now,  by  the  experience  of  the  trial-trip 
to  the  Greenland  coast,  so  abundantly  justified,  De  Haven 
found  an  English  transport,  chartered  by  the  Admiralty, 
that  could  carry  the  completely  knocked-up  young  doctor 
to  England  on  his  way  home ;  and  he  very  kindly,  but 
resolutely,  proposed  it.  All  that  was  required  was  that 
the  doctor  should  certify  his  own  unfitness  for  further 
service,  and  he  would  be  sent  home  invalided,  on  full  pay, 
rank  saved,  and  all  parties  handsomely  accommodated! 
The  doctor  looked  at  him  a  moment  in  almost  blank 
dismay.  There  was  a  consciousness  of  substantial  truth 
and  right  in  it;  but,  after  a  spasm  of  painful  feeling 
which  melted  the  captain's  very  heart,  he  turned  sud 
denly,  and  answered,  firmly,  "I  won't  do  it."  The 


152  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


captain  could  not  insist,  and  a  fortnight  afterwards  the 
doctor  was  fit  for  the  hardest  duty  of  the  voyage,  and 
for  many  months  the  busiest  and  most  efficient  man  on 
board. 

His  personal  narrative  of  the  Expedition  shows  what 
a  world  of  work  he  did  in  that  voyage,  the  most  remark 
able  for  risk,  adventure,  and  actual  achievement  of  that 
season  of  search.  Of  this  cruise,  styled  "The  United 
States  Grinnell  Expedition  in  search  of  Sir  John  Frank 
lin,"  to  indicate  the  mixed  governmental  and  private 
enterprise  which  it  represented,  it  is  well  known  Dr.  Kane 
became  the  historian.  The  vessels  left  New  York  on  the 
22d  of  May,  1850,  and  returned  to  the  same  port  on  the 
30th  of  September,  1851,  a  voyage  of  sixteen  months, 
during  nine  of  them  ice-locked  and  adrift  in  a  frozen 
ocean. 

It  is  alike  impossible  and  unnecessary  for  us  to  follow 
the  doctor  in  his  personal  adventures  throughout  this 
period  which  he  has  himself  journalized  and  published. 
We  have  not  the  temerity  to  rehearse  or  abridge  a 
narrative  so  absolutely  perfect  in  substance,  form,  array, 
and  effect.  It  was  given  to  the  world  from  the  press  of 
the  Harpers  early  in  July,  1853,  with  the  following 
advertisement : — "  It  may  apologize,  perhaps,  for  some 
imperfections  in  this  book,  to  mention  that  the  greater 
portion  of  it  has  gone  through  the  press  without  the 
author's  revisal.  While  he  was  engaged  in  preparing  it, 
the  liberality  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  of  New  York,  and  Mr. 
Peabody,  of  London,  enabled  him  to  set  on  foot  a  second 


HORRORS    OF    AUTHORSHIP.  153 


Polar  Expedition,  which  sailed  under  his  command  on  the 
31st  of  May  last.  It  was  his  purpose  to  remodel  some 
of  the  chapters,  and  to  add  one  of  two  on  collateral 
topics,  if  his  time  had  not  been  engrossed  by  the  prepa 
rations  for  his  journey." 

This  "note"  was  by  the  gentleman  who  supervised  the 
closing  sheets  of  the  book  as  they  passed  through  the 
press. 

Book-authorship  was  an  unexpected  and  a  trying  avoca 
tion  to  him.  There  was  nothing  in  all  the  multitudi 
nous  and  immensely  varied  engagements  of  his  life  which 
fretted,  worried,  and  exhausted  him  like  it.  His  strength 
was  not  adequate,  and  sedentary  occupation  was  at  once 
unfriendly  to  his  health  and  repugnant  to  his  habitude 
of  mind.  Hotspur,  in  his  worst  temper,  could  not  have 
felt  more  disposed  to  "divide  himself  and  go  to  buffets" 
over  an  uncongenial  job  than  our  man  of  manifold  capa 
cities  over  this  unwonted  work.  He  ivould  write  a  book 
for  his  peers  in  science  and  adventure ;  but  he  must  address 
himself  to  the  multitude,  and  adjust  himself  to  the  trade. 
He  would  enlist  the  public  sentiment  in  support  of  the 
private  enterprise  of  search  and  exploration  which  he 
was  endeavoring  to  inaugurate;  but  he  could  not  con 
strain  his  spirit  into  a  conformable  address.  He  doubted 
his  capability  most  libellously;  yet  he  felt  that  he  could 
do  it  if  he  might  execute  it  as  he  would,  if  allowed  to 
follow  the  leadings  of  his  own  mind;  and  his  friends — 
some  of  them,  at  least,  and  they  the  most  influential — 
friends  to  whose  judgments  he  looked  one  moment  with 


154  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


the  docility  of  a  child,  and  at  the  next  resisted  with  the 
temper  of  outraged  taste, — well,  it  may  be  said  in  a 
word,  they  badgered  him  till  he  escaped  into  the  field  of 
that  freer  fight  and  even  less  formidable  toil  which  he 
encountered  in  his  second  voyage  to  the  Polar  circle. 

At  one  time  during  the  early  summer  of  1852  his 
bodily  strength  fairly  broke  down  and  his  brain  well- 
nigh  gave  way.  In  diet  and  drink  he  was  habitually 
abstemious;  in  labor  he  was  terribly  intense;  and  when 
his  nervous  system  broke  up  under  this  weakening  regi 
men  and  wearing  work,  and  he  apprehended  an  attack 
of  apoplexy,  paralysis,  or  some  other  form  of  cerebral 
explosion,  to  meet  the  danger  he  put  himself  under  a 
reducing  drug-treatment,  and  was  on  the  very  verge  of 
a  fatal  issue  when  he  was  arrested  by  the  advice  of  a 
friend.  Upon  a  more  generous  system  of  living,  and 
some  relaxation  of  toil  in  book-making,  he  escaped  the 
imminently  impending  catastrophe.  Add  to  all  this  a 
voluminous  correspondence  in  which  he  engaged  to  for 
ward  the  interests  of  the  second  Expedition,  and  the 
wearing  solicitude  of  preparation  for  so  great  an  enter 
prise,  and  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  his  first  expe 
riences  in  authorship. 

He  had  been  lecturing,  too,  in  the  principal  Eastern 
cities,  creating  a  public  sentiment  wherever  he  went,  and 
had  the  unfamiliar  responsibilities  of  public  speaking  to 
add  to  the  repugnant  work  of  authorship.  That  he  was 
eminently  capable  of  both,  everybody  knew  but  him 
self;  no  success  in  results,  no  unanimity  of  public  opinion, 


EXPEDITIONS   OF    1852.  155 


would  ever  persuade  him  to  believe  a  word  of  it  for 
himself. 

The  book,  indeed,  held  a  secondary  and  a  subsidiary 
place  in  his  thoughts.  It  was  to  be  set  aside  if  it  could 
not  be  finished  in  time  for  starting  on  a  second  cruise  to 
the  North  in  1852.  He  had  been  straining  every  nerve, 
since  his  return  in  the  autumn  before,  to  get  up  a  private 
expedition  for  the  ensuing  spring. 

The  unexpected  return  of  the  British  squadron,  and 
the  compulsory  drift  which  had  brought  the  De  Haven 
brigs  ice-locked  almost  to  our  own  shores  before  they 
were  released,  had  increased  the  universal  desire  to  deter 
mine  the  fate  of  Franklin.  The  discovery,  in  1850,  of 
his  winter-quarters  at  Beechey  Island  in  1845-46  revived 
the  hopes  which  had  begun  to  fade  rapidly  away.  Five 
ships,  under  Sir  Edward  Belcher,  were  sent  out  to  renew 
the  search  in  the  spring  of  1852,  all  bound  for  Beechey 
Island ;  and,  in  consequence  of  a  report  of  the  murder  of 
Sir  John  and  his  crews  by  the  natives  of  Wolstenholme 
Sound,  on  the  west  coast  of  Greenland,  76 1°  N.,  Lady 
Franklin  refitted  the  Isabel  screw-steamer  for  the  inves 
tigation  of  this  story. 

The  field  of  search  was  to  be  explored  more  vigorously 
than  ever;  and  Dr.  Kane  panted  to  participate.  On  the 
7th  of  May,  1852,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Grinnell :— « The 
letters  of  Lady  Franklin  and  Miss  Cracroft  (her  niece) 
move  me.  Their  views  coincide  with  my  own.  I  am 
convinced  that  an  expedition  could  be  carried  out  under 
private  auspices  without  feeling  the  absence  of  an  arti- 


156  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


ficial  discipline.  If  you  will  send  for  Penny,  I  will  act 
either  conjointly  with  him,  or  in  any  other  position  in 
which  I  can  be  of  use.  .  .  .  The  feelings  which  lead  me 
to  this  offer  forbid  the  intrusion  of  any  thought  of  tech 
nical  dignity.  He  may  have  my  buttons,  and  I  will  go 
as  cook.  .  .  .  The  book  will  be  done  in  the  middle  of  June : 
we  might  be  off  before  the  1st  of  July.  .  .  .  You  ought 
not,  and  are  not,  to  advance  one  cent.  The  great  tax 
upon  you  will  be  the  '  Advance/  I  will  go  strenuously 
to  work  and  raise  the  funds,  giving  my  own  salary  as  a 
start." 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  he  wrote  again : — 
"  Upon  reconsidering  my  letter  of  this  morning,  it  seems 
to  me  that  if  you  knew  of  any  good,  practical  man  who 
could  act  as  sailing-master,  there  would  be  no  necessity 
for  the  delay  and  expense  of  Penny ;  and  I  could  readily 
undertake  the  exploration  proposed." 

Again,  9th  June,  1852,  he  says: — "I  am  still  too 
unwell  to  undertake  a  long  letter.  If  it  pleases  Provi 
dence  to  restore  me  to  robust  health,  I  will  gladly  form 
a  part  of  the  Behring's  Strait  expedition,  should  the 
'  Advance'  join  Lady  Franklin's  steamer.  My  judgment, 
however,  is  averse  to  the  plan." 

He  did  not  get  off  that  season.  His  efforts  through 
the  winter  and  spring  to  accomplish  this  wish  were  dis 
appointed  :  his  offers,  unreserved  as  they  were,  were  not 
accepted.  The  book  was  not  finished  in  June.  His 
health  had  badly  failed  him;  and  in  June,  when  it 
was'  tolerably  re-established,  another  task  absorbed  his 


LITTLE    WILLIE.  157 


thoughts,  feelings,  and  time  through  all  the  summer 
months  of  the  year. 

His  brother,  little  Willie,  a  lad  of  fifteen,  was  taken  ill 
in  the  spring,  of  disease  induced,  I  think,  by  excessive 
assiduity  in  study.  He  suffered  long  and  severely,  and 
bore  it  heroically.  While  he  was  yet  speechless,  after  a 
paroxysm  of  pain,  he  wrote  on  a  slate,  "Did  I  bear  that 
as  well  as  you  bore  your  lock-jaw?"  At  another  time 
he  said,  "  I  am  pretty  well  on  with  my  music ;  selecting 
all  the  good  pieces  and  restoring  them,  and  putting  the 
right  words  to  them,  so  that  they  may  do  their  good 
work  in  every  parlor;  but  if  any  thing  is  going  to  happen 
to  me  you  must  tell  me.  Don't  be  afraid.  I'll  bear  it 
well:  and — and — I  want  to  say  something  to  comfort 
mother." 

The  doctor  was  his  nurse  and  bedside-companion  till 
he  sank  to  rest,  on  the  25th  of  August. 

Natural  affection,  brother-love,  sympathy  for  extreme 
suffering,  were  not  the  only  ties  that  bound  Elisha  to 
Willie's  bedside,  displacing,  while  the  struggle  lasted, 
every  other  engagement,  and  suspending  every  other 
solicitude :  Willie  held  him  by  the  independent  claim  of 
personal  worthiness. 

No  falsities  of  fashion  or  form  were  permitted  to 
intrude  at  that  brave  boy's  funeral.  There  were  no 
cAie/-mourners  there :  strangers  to  his  blood,  who  knew 
him,  claimed  an  equality  of  grief  with  those  who 
shared  it. 

It  was  not  mere  precocity  of  development,  nor  childish 


158  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


sweetness  of  person  and  temper,  which  gave  Willie  his 
place  in  our  hearts  and  holds  him  still  in  their  memo 
ries.  That  youngest  of  the  family  bade  fairly  and  surely, 
we  thought,  to  rank  with  the  eldest  in  all  generous  and 
noble  achievements, — in  another  sphere  of  life,  indeed, 
but  not  less  excellent  or  beneficent. 

Willie  was  neither  the  copy  nor  the  contrast  of  Elisha. 
They  were  unlike  enough  to  love  each  other  like  brother 
and  sister ;  they  were  like  enough  for  all  the  reciproci 
ties  of  friendship.  Tears  sadly  sweet  for  our  loss  in  the 
early  death  of  Willie ;  solemn  exultation  over  the  nobly 
completed  life  of  Elisha.  .  .  . 

It  seemed,  while  we  looked  at  their  mother,  as  she 
stood,  in  the  composure  of  a  great  grief  ruled  by  a  strong 
spirit,  at  the  margin  of  her  child's  grave,  that  there  was 
one  consolation  for  her  in  his  premature  death: — He 
would  never  go  away,  out  of  her  arms,  away  into  the 
world.  She  had  now  one  child  safe  in  heaven, — a  child 
unchanging  to  her  until  her  own  change  should  come. 
Since  then  the  wandering  one  has  returned,  and  they 
rest  together.  Maternal  solicitude  is  released  from  its 
painful  vigils,  and  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  hope  the 
mother  sits  now  by  their  tomb  as  once  she  watched  by 
their  cradles  for  their  gladsome  waking. 

I  would  not  have  ventured  to  speak  of  this  sweetly  sad 

• 

episode  in  the  epic  of  Elisha's  life,  if  his  portraiture 
could  have  been  completed  without  it.  Those  who  know 
him  only  as  a  hero  may  herd  him  with  the  crowd  who 
have  in  their  thousand  ways  worked  their  names  into 


GRINNELL    LAND.  159 


history, — men  of  blood  or  men  of  brains, — men  of  chi- 
valric  spirit  and  distinguished  achievement,  whom  fame 
amply  repays  for  all  they  give  or  have  to  give  to  the 
world.  Our  man  of  mighty  enterprise  and  world-wide 
notoriety  had  a  heart  and  a  soul  in  him — all  nerve  to 
the  demands  of  duty,  but,  in  the  deepest  and  dearest 
sense,  all  tenderness,  devotion,  and  tact  in  the  offices  of 
affection  and  the  services  of  suffering  humanity.  It 
may  seem  strange,  but  it  is  true,  that  he  was  at  once  a 
man,  a  woman,  and  a  child  to  those  who  could  receive 
in  full  communion  the  life  he  had  to  give  them. 

The  summer  went  by :  the  autumn  mellowed  the  sorrows 
it  had  brought,  and  the  man  sprang  to  work  again.  The 
Book,  the  Book,  and  the  Expedition, — only  postponed, 
not  abandoned, — engaged  him;  and,  among  other  things, 
the  task  of  defending  De  Haven's  priority  of  discovery 
of  the  Grinnell  Land  at  the  head  of  Wellington  Channel. 

It  cannot,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should,  be 
disguised,  that  our  "friendly  allies"  in  the  search  for 
Franklin  did  not  behave  handsomely,  nor  fairly,  nor 
respectfully,  nor  justly,  in  this  matter,  which  so  nearly 
touched  the  honor  of  the  American  wing  of  that  service. 
It  is  all  settled  now  rightly,  but  it  was  not  done  grace 
fully,  by  the  Lords-Commissioners  of  the  British  Ad 
miralty. 

De  Haven,  at  the  northernmost  point  of  his  involun 
tary  drift  up  Wellington  Channel,  did,  on  the  22d  of 
September,  1850,  discover  land  extending  from  N.W.  to 
N.N.E.  of  his  position,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of 


160  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


Grinnell.  On  the  4th  of  October,  1851,  immediately 
after  his  return,  he  made  his  official  report,  claiming  this 
discovery,  backed  by  all  the  evidence  that  could  be 
required  to  establish  the  claim ;  and  the  newspapers  of 
the  day  carried  the  announcement  to  England,  along 
with  the  earliest  intelligence  of  the  safe  return  of  the 
gallant  and  generous  crews  who  had  gone  upon  the 
search  at  their  own  country's  expense  and  under  a  pledge 
to  decline  the  reward  which  had  been  offered  by  Parlia 
ment  to  induce  the  endeavor. 

On  the  12th  of  May,  1851,  eight  months  aftei  the 
discovery  of  De  Haven,  the  same  land  was  seen  by 
Captain  Penny,  of  the  English  squadron.  He  knew 
nothing  at  that  time  of  De  Haven's  ascent  of  the  channel 
in  the  preceding  September,  and  in  ignorance  of  tha,t 
fact  named  it  "Albert  Land,"  in  compliment  to  his 
Koyal  Highness.  This  name,  thus  excluding  the  Ameri 
can  discovery,  appeared  on  the  map  of  the  Hydrographic 
Office  published  in  September,  1851,  and  in  Arrowsmith's 
map  of  "Discoveries  in  the  Arctic  Sea,"  dated  21st  of 
October,  1851,  but  not  published  for  several  weeks  after 
wards, — for  some  of  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Kae,  which  were 
not  announced  to  the  Admiralty  till  the  10th  of  Novem 
ber,  appear  on  it. 

It  is  probable,  as  well  as  possible,  that  the  Hydro- 
graphic  Office  map  of  September,  1851,  was  innocent  of 
any  information   of  De  Haven's  discovery;  but  Arrow- 
smith's  loses  all  right  to  a  respectful  construction,  nc 
merely  by  the  fact  that  it  was  not  issued  until  after  news 


ARROTFSMITH    AND    THE    ADMIRALTY.         161 


of  De  Haven's  discovery  must  have  reached  England, 
but  by  the  fact,  open  on  the  face  of  the  document,  that 
Mr.  Arrowsmith,  sitting  in  his  office  at  No.  10  Soho 
Square,  London,  did,  himself,  then  and  there,  discover 
Albert  Land,  nuncio  tune,  on  the  26th  of  August,  1850, 
in  honor  of  Prince  Albert's  birthday,  and  in  dishonor 
and  discredit  of  De  Haven's  discovery,  made,  in  latitude 
75£°  N.  and  longitude  about  93£°  W.  of  the  position  of 
No.  10  Soho  Square,  twenty-seven  days  true  time  after  the 
computed  time  of  Mr.  Arrowsmith's  map. 

But,  if  both  these  unwarranted  claims  are  to  be  over 
looked  in  the  complaint  which  we  make,  the  Hydro- 
graphical  Map  of  the  British  Admiralty,  dated  8th  of 
April,  1852,  stands  fully  exposed  to  the  charge  of  insist 
ing  upon  an  unwarranted  assumption.  This  document, 
issued  so  long  after  De  Haven's  report  was  published, 
which  was  entitled,  under  any  circumstances,  to  greater 
consideration,  and,  in  the  peculiar  relations  of  the  parties, 
to  some  international  courtesy  besides,  cannot  claim  the 
same  forbearance.  This  map  of  "Discoveries  in  the 
Arctic  Seas  to  1851,  London,  published,  according  to 
Act  of  Parliament,  at  the  Hydrographical  Office  of  the 
Admiralty,  April  8,  1852,"  reasserted  the  name  of 
"Albert  Land"  for  that  tract  of  country  which  the  Grin- 
nell  Expedition  had  discovered  and  claimed  by  naming 
it  after  the  gentleman  who  represented  the  American 
title  to  that  honor. 

Here  was  an  involvement,  with  an  impeachment  lying 

under  it;  and  Lieutenant  De  Haven,  commanding  the 

11 


162  ELI3HA    KENT    KANE. 


"Advance,"  Mr.  Griffin,  commanding  the  "Kescue,"  and 
Dr.  Kane,  the  historian  of  the  cruise,  were  all  committed 
for  the  vindication  of  their  personal  credit  and  the  honor 
of  the  service  to  which  they  belonged. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  called  upon  Dr.  Kane  for 
a  statement  of  the  facts  by  which  the  discovery  was 
supported;  and  he  made,  also,  an  official  call  upon  Lieu 
tenant  De  Haven  for  a  report.  Dr.  Kane  replied  under 
date  of  28th  of  December,  1852.  The  Secretary  sent 
De  Haven's  chart  to  the  Admiralty  on  the  12th  of 
January,  1853,  which  was  received  on  the  31st  of  the 
same  month.  The  Lords-Commissioners,  on  the  1st  of 
March,  replied  that  "the  whole  Wellington  Channel 
will  no  doubt  be  materially  changed  by  Captain  Sir  E. 
Belcher's  observations:  it  would  be  better  to  let  this 
matter  remain  in  abeyance  until  his  return,  when  it  will 
be  their  lordships'  first  duty  to  do  the  fullest  justice  to 
the  enterprising  efforts  of  Lieutenant  De  Haven  and  to 
the  noble  liberality  of  Mr.  Grinnell." 

Moreover,  the  Admiralty  had  received  "an  engraved 
sketch  of  the  region  round  the  Wellington  Channel,  and 
a  tracing  of  the  Grinnell  vessels'  tracks  up  that  channel 
nearly  to  75 i°  north  latitude,"  forwarded  from  New 
York  on  the  18th  of  November,  1851,  which  was  laid 
before  the  board  by  their  hydrographer,  Sir  F.  Beaufort, 
as  appears  by  his  acknowledgment  bearing  date  the  5th 
of  December. 

Well,  Sir  E.  Belcher,  returning  from  his  tour  of  explo 
ration  at  the  head  of  Wellington  Channel,  landed  in 


ADJOURNED    JUSTICE.  163 


England  on  the  28th  of  September,  1854;  and  Sir  F. 
Beaufort,  Kear- Admiral  and  Hydrographer  of  the  Admi 
ralty,  writing  to  Mr.  Grinnell  on  the  24th  of  January, 
1855,  says,  "On  carefully  comparing  all  the  logs  and 
journals  of  Captain  Austin's  squadron,  it  is  manifestly 
impossible  that  any  of  his  vessels  could  have  seen  that 
land  till  the  year  after  its  discovery  by  Captain  De 
Haven." 

These  logs  of  Austin's  squadron  had  been  in  the  pos^ 
session  of  the  Admiralty  ever  since  the  autumn  of  1851. 
Sir  E.  Belcher  had  discovered  no  inaccuracies  in  De 
Haven's  report  which  could  touch  his  pretensions ;  and 
the  grace  of  crediting  him  and  his  officers  was  finally 
conceded,  not  to  their  claim,  but  to  the  manifest  impos 
sibility  of  discrediting  it  after  four  years  of  incredulous 
scrutiny. 

Had  it  been  earlier  it  had  been  more  courteous.  The 
British  claim  was  from  the  first,  as  Dr.  Kane  held  it  in 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Grinnell,  dated  May  10,  1852,  "utterly 
indefensible."  There  were  but  two  questions  in  the 
controversy :  one  touching  the  capacity  of  the  American 
officers  to  observe  and  understand  what  they  saw,  the 
other  affecting  their  veracity  in  reporting  it.  The  con 
cession  was  not  made  to  either  claim. 

The  substance  of  Dr.  Kane's  demolishing  argument 
against  the  English  assumption,  made  for  the  use  of  the 
Navy  Department,  is  reproduced  in  the  twenty-fifth 
chapter  of  his  Personal  Narrative  of  the  First  Grinnell 
Expedition.  Lieutenant  De  Haven's  official  report  is  in 


164  ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


the  Appendix  of  the  same  volume,  p.  494.  Colonel 
Peter  Force,  of  Washington  City,  during  this  period  of 
long-delayed  justice,  or,  rather,  the  adjourned  question 
of  our  squadron's  honor,  brought  to  the  rescue  of  his 
countrymen's  claims  the  great  resources  and  ample 
powers  in  his  possession,  and,  in  a  series  of  papers  dis 
tinguished  for  their  frankly  severe  criticism,  completely 
established  the  De  Haven  discovery. 
.  Even  when  Dr.  Kane  sailed  for  the  North  on  the  31st 
of  May,  1853,  he  seems  to  have  felt  no  assurance  that 
the  honor  of  the  Grinnell  Land  discovery  at  the  head 
of  Wellington  Channel  would  ever  be  frankly  conceded 
to  De  Haven  by  the  Lords-Commissioners;  for  this,  to 
our  understanding,  is  the  clear  meaning  of  one  paragraph 
of  his  letter  to  Mr.  Kennedy,  written  before  he  landed  at 
New  York  on  his  return.  He  says, "  I  have  a  Grinnell  Land 
now  which  any  one  is  welcome  to  take  who  reaches  it." 

The  now  in  this  sentence  is  underscored  in  the  autograph 
letter.  The  emphasis  upon  the  word  "  take"  is  referred  to 
the  judgment  of  the  readers  of  this  brief  narrative  of  the 
affair,  with  great  confidence  that  there  is  no  danger  of 
its  being  put  on  too  heavily.  Dr.  Kane  had  put  the 
name  of  Grinnell  on  a  newly-discovered  coast  so  near 
the  Pole  that  his  priority  was  not  likely  to  be  disputed. 

Mr.  Kennedy,  quoting  the  same  letter, — from  me 
mory  doubtless, — makes  the  doctor  say,  "I  have  found 
another  Grinnell  Land,  which  any  man  is  welcome  to 
who  will  go  after  it."  Another  Grinnell  Land,  with 
out  any  difference  of  name  to  distinguish  it  on  the  map 


COMITY    AND    EQUITY.  165 


of  the  Polar  region,  and  requiring  a  periphrase  to  deter 
mine  its  locality  every  time  it  must  be  used !  No  :  Dr. 
Kane  did  not  know  or  believe  that  he  had  two ;  else  he 
would  have  ear-marked  them  better,  to  prevent  confusion 
in  his  nomenclature. 

Believing  that  Dr.  Kane's  characteristic  forbearance 
in  the  management  of  this  controversy  cannot  rightfully 
be  construed  into  any  thing  like  satisfaction  with  the 
conduct  of  the  Lords-Commissioners,  we  have  conscien 
tiously  endeavored  to  vindicate  the  truth  of  history, 
leaving  the  international  comities  of  kindred  blood, 
language,  and  Anglo-Saxon  partnership  in  the  patronage 
of  our  planet  to  take  care  of  themselves,  under  correction 
of  even-handed  justice  to  the  "high  contracting  parties" 
and  "the  rest  of  .mankind." 


CHAPTER  X. 

ME.  KENNEDY'S  ALACRITY — SYMPATHY  OP  THE  SAVANS — CONFIDENCE 

STRENGTHENED — EXCITING  THE  OFFICIALS — HOPES  ON  A  SEE-SAW — 
DRUDGERY  OF  BORING — KENNEDY  CHANNEL — CASH  CONTRIBUTIONS — 
LECTURING-BUSINESS — MR.  PEABODY  —  DEFICIENCIES  OF  OUTFIT  — 
LABORIOUS  PREPARATIONS — PATRIOTIC  ENTHUSIASM — THE  HONORS 
IN  DANGER — RACE  AGAINST  TIME — ADMIRALTY  CHART — A  TIME 
TO  BE  SICK — DAILY  PRAYERS — CHRISTIAN  HEROISM — SPECIAL  PRO 
VIDENCE —  WORSHIP  AMONG  THE  HUMMOCKS  —  VINDICATION  OF 
FAITH — "HOW  READEST  THOU?" — SAVING  FAITH. 

FROM  this  parenthesis  of  impatience  with  the  Lords- 
Commissioners  in  the  matter  of  Grinnell  Land — for 
which,  be  it  understood,  Dr.  Kane  is  in  no  wise  respon 
sible* — we  return  to  his  unremitting  labors  through  the 


*  In  a  letter  dated  May  17,  1853,  in  which  he  mentions  several  pre 
sents,  valuable  for  service  in  the  Arctic  regions,  from  Sir  F.  Beaufort, 
Captain  McClintock,  Captain  Inglefield,  Mr.  Barrow,  and  the  Admiralty, — 
tetters  to  him  from  Parry,  Ross,  and  Sabine,  containing  helpful  sugges 
tions  for  his  Expedition,  and  other  letters  from  Captains  Penny  and 
Kennedy,  in  purpose  and  matter  friendly  and  useful,  he  says : — 

"  It  will  gratify  you  to  see  my  letters  from  Sir  F.  Beaufort  and  others 
of  Arctic  reputation  across  the  water.  To  me  England  has  always  been 
a  seat  of  sympathy  and  pride ;  and  I  am  glad  that  I  never  permitted 
166 


MR.  KENNEDY'S  ALACRITY.  167 


winter  of  1852-53  in  the  wearing  work  of  getting  up 
the  expedition  of  the  ensuing  spring, 

In  a  personal  interview  with  the  Honorable  John  P. 
Kennedy,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  he  unfolded  the  plan 
and  purposes  of  his  second  Polar  voyage.  Mr.  Kennedy — 
perceiving  that,  with  all  the  liberality  of  Mr.  Grinnell 
and  Mr.  Peabody,  the  outfit  would  be  very  limited,  and 
believing  that  he  could  aid  it  by  some  valuable  additions 
through  the  ordinary  means  of  the  Navy  Department — 
suggested  to  the  doctor  that  he  would  issue  an  order  to 
place  him  on  "special  duty"  with  reference  to  the  Expe 
dition,  and  direct  him  to  report  to  the  Department.  This 
enabled  the  Secretary  to  increase  his  pay  to  the  "duty- 
rate,"  and  to  add  many  facilities  for  his  voyage,  besides 
giving  the  Expedition  something  of  the  advantages  of  a 
Government  connection,  which  might  serve  a  good  pur 
pose  in  its  prospective  necessities.  This  order  was 
accordingly  issued  on  the  27th  of  November,  1852;  and, 
when  the  time  came,  ten  men  belonging  to  the  navy 
were  attached  to  the  doctor's  command,  under  Government 


myself  to  use  an  uncourteous  expression  in  connection  with  '  Grinnell 
Land/ 

"I  hope  you  will  not  think  me  self-adulatory  when  I  say  that  my  lec 
tures  and  scientific  papers  have  been  of  practical  service  in  giving  our  Ex 
pedition  character  among  those  whose  opinions  are  calculated  to  advance 
its  permanent  reputation.  Every  thing  seems  to  point  to  a  prosperous 
commencement ;  making  it  only  the  more  incumbent  upon  us,  as  Ameri 
cans  and  men,  to  sustain  the  expectations  of  those  who  are  watching  our 
course.  On  this  head  I  feel  gravely  my  responsibility." 


168  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


pay.  Apparatus  from  the  Medical  Bureau,  "rations  and 
commutations"  for  the  volunteers  detached  from  the 
navy,  and  such  other  necessaries  for  the  voyage  were 
added  as  were  within  the  Secretary's  very  liberal  con 
struction  of  his  powers.  And  to  these  helps  the  Smith 
sonian  Institute  and  the  National  Observatory  contributed 
liberally  for  scientific  purposes.  Professors  Henry  and 
Bache,  and  Lieutenant  Maury  were  alike  zealous  in  yield 
ing  whatever  of  assistance  was  in  their  power  to  bestow. 

With  an  appropriation  from  Congress  the  Expedition 
could  have  been  made  much  more  effectual,  and  much 
suffering  might  have  been  avoided;  but  the  hope  of  such 
aid  was  so  slight  that  it  was  believed  to  be  almost  useless 
to  apply  for  it. 

The  gentlemen  just  named,  who  are  respectively  at 
the  head  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  the  Coast  Survey, 
and  the  Observatory,  joined  in  a  formal  and  ably-argued 
application  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  the  assist 
ance  of  the  Department,  warmly  commending  him  for 
the  zeal  he  had  already  displayed  by  his  orders  in  behalf 
of  the  enterprise,  approving  its  objects,  and  as  warmly 
endorsing  Dr.  Kane's  "  peculiar  qualities  as  an  explorer, 
and  his  varied  resources  of  knowledge,  exhibited,  as  they 
had  been,  in  his  contributions  to  the  De  Haven  Expedi 
tion,"  which,  they  said,  "point  him  out  as  eminently  fitted 
for  the  task  which  he  proposes  to  undertake  under  your 
auspices." 

In  November  he  received  the  intelligence  of  Captain 
Inglefield's  reported  discoveries  in  Smith's  Sound, — the 


CONFIDENCE    STRENGTHENED.  169 


track  of  his  own  proposed  search.  In  August  that 
officer  had  entered  the  Sound  and  seen  a  great  open  sea, 
cumbered  more  or  less  with  loose  ice,  and  picturesquely 
furnished  with  an  Mand  in  the  distance,  to  which  he 
gave  the  name  of  Louis  Napoleon. 

This  peep  into  the  "  great  Polar  basin"  was  performed 
in  the  space  of  a  few  hours,  in  a  heavy  gale  which  blew 
the  vessel  out  of  the  Sound.  It  was,  however,  duly 
charted;  and  Dr.  Kane  received  it  as  "an  entire  confirma 
tion  of  the  soundness  of  his  plan  of  search,"  and  expected 
that  it  would  probably  cause  Lady  Franklin  to  add  her  little 
steamer,  the  "  Isabel,"  to  his  party  in  the  following  spring. 
"  Indeed,"  he  says, "  every  thing  points  to  a  successful  reso 
lution  of  the  much-vexed  question  of  an  open  Polar  sea." 

In  the  event  the  "Isabel"  did  not  join  his  party,  and 
Ingle  field's  sea  was  so  tight  under  ice  when  the  "Advance" 
entered  it  the  next  year,  that  she  was  stopped  by  it;  and 
"the  same  ice  is  round  her  still." 

Two  years  of  careful  observation  of  that  region  resolved 
the  island  into  a  mistake;  and  the  coast-lines,  longitude, 
distances,  and  open  sea  of  Inglefield  went  into  the  list 
of  "illusory  discoveries." 

Lecturing  and  book-writing  went  on  through  the  win 
ter,  amid  the  racking  toil  and  anxiety  of  preparation  for 
an  early  start  for  the  North. 

A  hope  of  Congressional  aid — one  of  those  hopes  that 
are.  born  of  want  to  die  of  fatigue,  or,  rather,  the  con 
scientious  duty  of  endeavoring  to  secure  it — cost  weeks 
of  incessant  labor. 


170  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Of  one  of  those  weeks,  ending  the  30th  of  January, 
he  gives,  in  brief,  this  account : — "  In  order  to  excite  an 
interest,  I  accepted  an  invitation,  hastily  given  by  Pro 
fessor  Henry,  to  lecture  at  the  Smithsonian,  and  invited 
thereto  the  Senate  Committee  and  Heads  of  Departments. 
I  gave  them  a  full  exposition  of  our  plans,  state  of  organi 
zation,  and  requirements.  The  Secretary  (of  the  Navy) 
was  present. 

"  I  have  not  hesitated  to  call  personally  on  any  mem 
ber  of  either  House  whose  interest  was  of  peculiar 
importance ;  and  all  this,  together  with  the  task  of  draw 
ing  up  requisitions,  &c.  &c.,  has  completely  used  me  up. 
I  have  not  averaged  more  than  three  hours'  sleep  a  night 
since  I  left." 

It  seems  that  he  obtained  a  promise  from  the  proper 
parties  to  append  a  grant  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  for 
the  use  of  his  Expedition,  to  the  General  Appropriation 
bill.  He  adds  to  the  statement  the  ominous  remark  that 
"  this  will  require  more  work." 

The  issue  appears  in  his  record  of  another  week's 
work  in  April,  after  Mr.  Kennedy  had  gone  out  with  the 
Fillmore  administration  and  Secretary  Dobbin  had  come 
in  with  General  Pierce : — 

April  7th,  by  telegraph :  "Things  look  black." 

8th:  "Still  seeing  Senators." 

llth:  "Every  thing  that  my  poor  efforts  could  do  is 
now  done ;  and  I  anxiously  wait  an  answer." 

"General  Pierce  favored  rne  with  a  private  interview 
yesterday  at  9  A.M.  I  talked  nearly  one  hour,  and  he 


DRUDGERY    OF     BORING.  171 


seemed  more  than  interested;  asking  many  questions, 
and  promising  his  concurrence,  and  even  preliminary  aid 
with  Mr.  Dobbin. 

"After  that  interview  I  drew  up  a  full  letter  to  the 
Secretary,  and  presented  it  through  a  couple  of  Senators, 
who  would  take  care  to  tell  him  of  the  President's  senti 
ments.  To  this  letter  I  anxiously  wait  an  answer,  sick 
and  tired,  and  anxious  to  get  away.  I  have  written 
letters  enough  to  carry  Collins'  lines." 

lltli.  by  telegraph :  "A  bare  ghost  of  a  chance." 

Same  day,  by  letter:  "I  have  completed  a  long  argu 
mentative  paper,  by  Mr.  Dobbin's  request,  placing  the 
matter  in  the  light  of  a  public  obligation."  And,  after 
detailing  a  host  of  auxiliary  efforts  and  agencies  em 
ployed,  by  which  he  left  no  stone  unturned  that  might 
have  a  worm  under  it,  the  gentleman  breaks  out,  as  with 
a  critical  sweat, — "All  this  is  very  disgusting." 

12th:  "The  result  of  a  week's  hard  work  is — a  sacri 
fice  of  time,  money,  and  influence !  I  will  be  with  you 
by  Thursday  night." 

The  sum  total  of  Government  help  is  given  and  credited 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  .Kennedy,  of  the  19th  of  May: — "Your 
successor,  Mr.  Dobbin,  has  given  me  the  kind  assurance 
that  he  would  not  undo  your  work, — an  assurance  which, 
while  it  showed  very  clearly  that  he  was  indisposed  to 
add  to  it,  at  least  enables  Mr.  Grinnell  and  myself  to 
recognise  you  alone  as  the  centre  of  obligation.  In  fact, 
Loco-foco  as  I  am,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  my  little  party 
belongs  to  another  Administration ;  and  I  hope  that  you 


172  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


will  not  be  bored  if  I  show  my  recognition  of  your  per 
sonal  agency  by  a  regular  bulletin  from  the  land  of  ice." 

"Kennedy  Channel/'  connecting  the  Arctic  ring  of 
perpetual  ice  with  the  open  sea  near  the  Pole,  is  the 
appropriate  fulfilment  of  this  purpose. 

It  will  be  recollected  that  the  doctor  was  decided 
against  a  "strictly  naval  expedition."  His  strenuous 
but  unavailing  endeavor  to  secure  for  the  private  one 
which  he  conducted  every  needed  assistance  from  the 
Government  acquits  him  of  responsibility  for  the  defi 
ciencies  of  outfit  which  he  could  not,  by  all  the  efforts  in 
his  power,  prevent. 

His  personal  contributions  to  the  expense-fund  cannot 
be  given;  but  we  know  that  he  devoted  at  least  twenty 
months  of  unremitting  toil,  his  own  pay,  (which  must 
have  been  about  three  thousand  dollars,)  and  the  proceeds 
of  the  lectures  which  he  delivered  through  the  winters 
of  1852  and  1853  in  the  Atlantic  cities.  We  have  the 
evidence  of  one  item  only, — the  amount  thus  raised  in 
Boston.  Writing  to  Mr.  Grinnell,  26th  of  February, 
1853,  he  says,  "Mr.  George  K.  Kussell,  of  Boston,  for 
warded  to  me  the  funds  resulting  from  my  Boston  visit. 
These  I  have  deposited  in  the  Farmers'  and  Mechanics' 
Bank,  and,  as  soon  as  I  get  time  to  run  over  the  accounts, 
will  send  you  a  check  for  the  amount.  I  wish  I  could 
afford  to  give  my  travelling-expenses ;  but  I  am  so  out  of 
pocket  already  with  my  perambulations,  that,  in  the  case 
of  Boston,  I  had  to  charge  them.  These,  however,  refer 
only  to  such  as  are  absolutely  incidental  to  my  object. 


LECTU  RING-BUSINESS.  173 


"Including  the  several  sums  of  $78  75  and  $58  re 
ceived  from  New  Bedford,  and  those  added  to  my  lectures 
in  Boston,  the  gross  sum  is  somewhere  about  $1400." 

While  at  Boston  the  lecturing-business  gets  this  charac 
teristic  touch : — "  The  fund  which  I  sought  to  raise  works 
hardly,  for  I  will  not  accept  personal  contributions,  as  I 
regard  them  as  interfering  not  only  with  my  own  dig 
nity,  but  that  of  the  Expedition.  ...  A  letter  has  been 
circulated  by  the  first  men,  inviting  me  to  lecture;  and, 
by  the  aid  of  the  ladies,  all  the  best  of  whom  I  have 
pressed  into  the  service,  I  hope  to  succeed.  Every  day 
is  the  scene  of  some  rival  attraction,  and  I  have  to  do  all 
I  can  to  distance  my  rivals, — Blitz,  Alboni,  and  Emerson : 
we  are  all  of  one  feather.  No  matter:  so  that  I  get 
my  money,  I  do  not  care." 

The  amount  of  his  gatherings  from  all  quarters  we 
do  not  know,  nor  the  sum  of  his  givings  from  his  own 
purse  before  sailing,  and  especially  after  his  return,  when 
his  private  resources  supplied  him  witE  abundance  of 
money. 

Mr.  Peabody,  an  American  gentleman  residing  in  Lon 
don,  well  known  for  his  liberality,  paid  in  ten  thousand 
dollars;  Mr.  Grinnell  gave  the  brig  which  was  left  in 
Smith's  Sound,  and  how  much  besides  we  know  not;  the 
Geographical  Society  of  New  York,  the  Smithsonian  In 
stitution,  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and  a 
number  of  scientific  associations  and  friends  of  science 
besides,  came  forward  to  help  him:  but  we  have  some 
grounds  for  the  belief  that  there  was  no  larger  cash-con- 


174  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


tributor,  first  and  last,  to  the  Expedition,  than  Dr.  Kane 
himself, — if  the  funds  raised  by  his  own  labor  may  be  as 
fairly  credited  to  him  as  to  the  parties  from  whom  they 
were  received.  And  we  think  they  may;  for  the  pro 
ceeds  of  his  lectures  were  justly  his  own,  and  the  larger 
part  even  of  his  travelling-expenses  came  from  his  own 
pocket. 

If  he  had  failed,  either  in  labor  or  sacrifice,  in  prepara 
tion  for  this  voyage,  all  the  reputation  he  has  won  for 
courage,  endurance,  and  achievement  would  not  shelter 
him  from  censure  for  recklessness  and  the  suspicion  of  a 
selfish  ambition.  But  can  the  most  exacting  spirit  ask 
more  from  mortal  man  than  he  did  to  insure  the  good 
fortune  of  his  great  adventure  ? 

He  speaks  to  the  point  in  his  own  way,  (Second  Grin- 
nell  Expedition,  vol.  i.  p.  25 :)  "  No  one  can  know  so 
well  as  an  Arctic  voyager  the  value  of  foresight.  My 
conscience  has  often  called  for  the  exercise  of  it,,  but  my 
habits  make  it  an  effort.  I  can  hardly  claim  to  be  provi 
dent,  either  by  impulse  or  education.  Yet  for  some  of 
the  deficiencies  of  our  outfit  I  ought  not,  perhaps,  to 
hold  myself  responsible.  Our  stock  of  fresh  meats  was 
too  small,  and  we  had  no  preserved  vegetables :  but  my 
personal  means  were  limited;  and  I  could  not  press  more 
severely  than  a  strict  necessity  exacted  upon  the  unques 
tioning  liberality  of  my  friends." 

Every  word  of  this  apologetic  sentence  is  entitled  to 
its  utmost  weight,  except  the  generous-spirited  exaggera 
tion  of  his  improvidence.  A  mountain  of  letters  before 


LABORIOUS    PREPARATIONS.  175 


me,  written  during  the  last  months  of  preparation  for 
the  voyage,  prove  an  amount  of  foresight,  provident 
care,  and  thoughtful  solicitude  and  labor  which  would, 
do  honor  to  the  head  and  all  the  hands  of  the  Commis 
sary  Department  of  the  Navy.  Their  details  are  micro 
scopically  minute,  and  their  compass  thoroughly  complete. 
Page  upon  page  of  memorandum  and  calculation — with 
their  firstlies,  secondlies,  up  to  twentiethlies,  exact  as 
mathematics  could  make  them,  methodical  as  an  adept 
could  contrive,  and  simple  and  clear  enough  for  a  bullet- 
headed  clerk  to  comprehend — are  here  to  confront  his 
self-depreciation.  At  one  time  the  guns  are  being  made 
under  his  own  eye,  that  their  quality  may  be  insured 
while  economy  is  consulted;  at  another,  the  order  is 
withdrawn  because  the  funds  will  not  reach  the  outlay, 
with  the  protest,  "  I  hate  to  borrow  a  gun."  Again,  he 
offers  to  go  to  New  York  to  superintend  the  preparation 
of  the  "  pemmican"  required  for  the  voyage.  "  If  we  could 
procure  a  malt-kiln  for  a  single  week,  I  would  under 
take  the  matter;  and  I  think  we  could  prepare  it  more 
economically  and  of  more  certain  quality." 

At  this  time  his  pen  was  running,  his  telegraphs 
flying,  he  was  worrying  the  Department,  examining  re 
cruits,  inventing  cooking-stoves,  pricing  rounds  of  beef, 
rummaging  the  Medical  Bureau  at  Washington  till  he  had 
"succeeded  in  begging  some  $2000  worth  of  outfit,"  and 
was  all  the  while  up  to  his  elbows  in  a  batch  of  Depart 
ment-dough  that  was  only  souring  while  he  was  trying 
to  make  it  rise. 


176  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


No  human  quantity  of  omniscience  and  providence 
would  have  been  a  full  match  for  the  duties  with  which 
this  one  man  was  burdened,  and  no  other  man  would 
have  performed  them  half  so  well.  It  was  a  "perfectly 
thought-out  organization"  and  a  wonderfully  endeavored 
preparation.  Moreover,  it  must  be  recollected  that  he 
was  well  warranted  in  relying  upon  Mr.  Grinnell's  ability, 
generosity,  and  responsibility  for  all  those  arrangements 
of  the  vessel  and  outfit  which  did  not  appropriately  and 
especially  devolve  upon  himself.  V  • 

In  a  note  to  the  first  page  of  this  chapter,  the  doctor's 
English  sympathies  are  indicated;  his  American  enthu 
siasm  is  as  well  entitled  to  a  presentment :  the  one  sprang 
from  the  generous  breadth  of  his  liberality;  the  other 
rooted  itself  in  a  patriotism  as  intense  as  ever  was 
covered  by  the  banner  of  his  country. 

England  had  almost  monopolized  the  honors  of  Arctic 
exploration  on  the  American  continent.  The  North 
west  Passage  was  her  achievement.  Under  De  Haven, 
Dr.  Kane  had  helped  to  plant  the  stars  and  stripes  upon 
the  most  northern  land  then  discovered  upon  the  Western 
hemisphere;  and  now  he  would  carry  it  to  the  open  sea, 
if  it  was  in  the  power  of  man  to  accomplish  that  feat. 

He  had  announced  his  plan  of  search  for  Sir  John 
Franklin,  and  his  prospect  of  reaching  the  open  Polar 
waters  by  the  route  of  Smith's  Sound,  early  in  the 
autumn  of  the  preceding  year;  but,  three  months  before 
he  can  be  ready  for  the  enterprise,  he  is  aroused  by  the 
fear  that  England  may  pluck  the  honor  of  this  achieve- 


THE  HONORS  IN  DANGER.          177 


ment  from  the  American  service.  Let  us  see  how  it 
affected  him. 

On  the  26th  of  February,  1853,  confined  to  his  room 
and  too  ill  to  write,  he  dictated  the  following  letter  to 
Mr.  Kennedy: — 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  take  the  liberty  of  sending  for  your 
perusal  a  letter  which  I  have  just  received  from  Lady 
Franklin,  to  assure  you  of  the  gratitude  with  which  she 
regards  your  kindness. 

"  The  same  mail,  to  my  great  mortification,  brings  me 
the  news  that  the  British  Admiralty  have  adopted  my 
scheme  of  search,  and  are  about  to  prosecute  it  with  the 
aid  of  steam.  Nothing  is  left  me,  therefore,  but  a  com 
petition  with  the  odds  against  me ;  and  for  this,  even,  I 
must  hasten  the  preparations  for  my  departure.  I  will 
be  in  Washington,  with  this  object,  without  the  delay  of 
an  hour,  and  shall  do  myself  the  honor  of  reporting  to 
you." 

6th  of  March,  he  writes  to  Mr.  Grinnell : — "Your  news 
that  the  '  Advance'  is  in  dock  came  pleasantly  in  accord 
ance  with  my  wishes.  The  only  means  by  which  we 
can  compete  with  the  screw-steamer  of  Inglefield  is  by 
an  early  presence  in  Melville  Bay,  which  may,  by  a  for 
tunate  season,  enable  us  to  enter  the  North  "Water  with 
the  whaling-fleet  by  the  June  passage.  I  am  very 
anxious  to  reach  the  Duck  Islands  by  the  last  of  May. 

"  My  own  impression  as  to  Smith's  Sound  is,  that  it  is 
seldom  open  until  late  in  the  summer, — say  last  of  August, 

— unless   the  winter-  be  what  is  termed  an  open  one. 

12 


178  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Should  this  latter  good  fortune  be  the  case  this  season, 
we  may,  by  an  early  presence,  get  the  start  even  of  a 
steamer :  but  I  am  discouraged. 

" Should  the  ice,  however,  be  'fast'  across  the  Sound, 
and  my  plan  of  sledge  and  boat  progress  come  regularly 
into  play,  I  ask  no  favors:  steamer  or  no  steamer,  we 
shall  do  well." 

17th  of  May:  "Every  hour  saved  is  of  importance 
with  regard  to  Inglefield." 

19th, to  Mr.  Kennedy:  "You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that 
my  delay  has  not  as  yet  interfered  with  our  prospects. 
My  late  letters  from  Lady  Franklin  speak  of  Inglefield 
as  not  yet  leaving,  and  the  Baffin  Bay  ice  as  probably 
still  fast." 

Two  weeks  before  sailing:  "It  seems  to  me,  taking 
Inglefield's  departure  into  consideration,  that  we  cannot 
be  off  too  soon.  ...  If  we  start  at  once,  and  are  favored 
with  a  fair  passage,  we  may  yet  meet  Inglefield." 

Even  the  log  of  the  first  officer  shows  that  the  trip  up 
the  coast  of  Greenland  was  a  chase, — a  steeple-chase ;  the 
Advance  on  the  heels  of  the  Isabel,  doubling  the  Bay.  of 
Melville  to  get  the  inside  track,  and,  for  a  week,  running 
with  iceberg  tugs  against  steam,  and  in  at  the  winning- 
post  handsomely,  to  learn  at  last  that  she  had  been 
running  against  time ! 

For  all  this  apprehensiveness  was  a  mistake.  Inglefield 
was  not  bound  for  Smith's  Sound.  He  was  ten  days 
ahead  at  Sukkertoppen ;  but  he  was  despatched  to  Lan 
caster  Sound,  as  Dr.  Kane  learned  on  his  return  two 


ADMIRALTY    CHART.  179 


years  afterwards.  The  mistake  was  like  many  another 
that  has  set  the  world  agog :  it  was  a  mistake  of  a  word. 
Lady  Franklin  had  informed  him  that  the  Admiralty 
had  adopted  his  plan  of  search.  They  had  only  approved 
it;  and  they  had  no  intention  of  prosecuting  it  with 
steam. 

Captain  Inglefield's  "great  Polar  basin,  visible  from 
78°  28'  21"  North,  and  extending  through  seven  points 
of  the  compass,"  was  not  sufficiently  persuasive ;  but  the 
Admiralty  lost  nothing  by  waiting  for  better  advices,  and 
Dr.  Kane  gained  nothing  by  the  faith  which  he  so  frankly 
gave  to  the  report.  His  journal  says,  "There  can  be  no 
correspondence  between  my  own  and  the  Admiralty 
charts  north  of  latitude  78°  18'.  Not  only  do  I  remove 
the  general  coast-line  some  two  degrees  in  longitude  to 
the  eastward,  but  its  trend  is  altered  sixty  degrees  in 
angular  measurement.  No  landmarks  of  my  prede 
cessor,  Captain  Inglefield,  are  recognizable." 

Since  the  publication  of  these  corrections,  the  news 
papers  have  announced  that  "  The  British  Board  of  Ad 
miralty  have  notified  our  Government  that  they  have 
accepted  Dr.  Kane's  charts,  thus  throwing  overboard  the 
charts  of  Captain  Inglefield  and  other  Arctic  navigators 
belonging  to  the  British  navy,  as  well  as  the  works  of  all 
of  Dr.  Kane's  predecessors  on  the  coast  of  Greenland." 

Dr.  Kane  had  every  other  motive  for  hastening  his 
departure  for,  and  early  arrival  in,  the  Polar  sea,  which 
the  purposes  of  his  voyage  required;  but  the  desperate 
struggle  which  he  made  to  secure  the  honors  of  Arctic 


180  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


discovery  to  American  enterprise  deserves  a  record  here, 
and  a  generous  appreciation  in  the  minds  of  his  country 
men.  His  heart  was  moved  to  its  depths  by  the  hapless 
fate  of  the  lost  mariners  of  England,  and  the  helpless 
sorrow  of  the  friends  they  left  behind  them ;  the  govern 
ing  impulse  that  sent  him  out  twice  upon  the  search  was 
sympathy  for  the  sufferers ;  but  a  patriotism  as  ardent 
and  enthusiastic  as  a  pilgrim's  religion  devoted  him  to 
his  country's  glory. 

About  the  middle  of  April  he  went  to  New  York,  to 
give  his  personal  attention  to  the  outfit  of  the  ship,  and 
to  hasten  her  departure.  Immediately  after  his  arrival 
he  was  taken  ill,  and,  for  three  weeks,  was  bedfast  under 
the  kind  care  of  Mr.  Grinnell's  family.  Writing  to  Mr. 
Kennedy,  from  Philadelphia,  on  the  19th  of  May,  he 
says,  "After  a  cruel  attack  of  inflammatory  rheuma 
tism,  and  three  weeks  of  complete  helplessness  on  my 
beam-ends,  I  find  myself  ready  to  start." 

To  Mr.  Grinnell  he  writes: — "I  am  so  much  better 
that  I  hope  to  be  able  in  a  day  or  two  to  ask  you  to 
name  a  day  for  our  departure;  whereupon  I  will  so  leave 
Philadelphia  as  to  give  myself  a  week  in  New  York. 

"  The  enemy  still  hangs  by  me,  and  it  requires  several 
hours  to  thaw  out  my  night's  stiffness.  The  doctors, 
however,  tell  me  that  I  must  expect  this  until  I  get  off 
poundings : — no  very  comforting  opinion  to  a  man  who 
has  so  much  hard  work  ahead. 

"  When  I  review  my  sickness,  its  time  and  place,  your 
own  devoted  hospitality,  and  the  pleasant  store  of  recol- 


A    TIME    TO    BE    SICK.  181 


lections  which  it  has  engendered,  I  cannot  say  that  I 
regret  my  attack.  Providence,  who  watches  over  our 
Expedition,  has  his  own  wise  ends  to  fulfil  in  this  afflic 
tion  to  myself;  and,  while  I  feel  that  we  have  as  yet  lost 
nothing  practically  by  our  delay,  I  regard  it  as  a  positive 
gain  that  my  disease  should  have  manifested  itself  before 
my  departure." 

Those  six  weeks  of  suffering  and  incapacity  for  the 
work  of  preparing  for  his  departure  were  indeed  a  heavy 
drawback  then,  and  their  burden  and  embarrassment  fol 
lowed  him  in  painful  memories  through  the  voyage. 
After  journalizing  the  ghastly  merriment  of  .the  party, 
on  the  next  Christmas  day,  in  the  ice  of  Smith's  Sound, 
he  makes  a  significant  allusion  to  the  terrible  struggle 
which  it  had  cost  to  break  away  from  home  under  circum 
stances  so  forbidding. 

"  So  much,"  he  says,  "for  the  Merrie  Christmas.  What 
portion  of  its  mirth  was  genuine  with  the  rest  I  cannot 
tell,  for  we  are  practised  actors,  some  of  us;  but  there 
was  no  heart  in  my  share  of  it.  My  thoughts  were  with 
those  far  off,  who  are  thinking,  I  know,  of  me.  I  could 
bear  my  own  troubles  as  I  do  my  eider-down  coverlet;  for 
I  can  see  myself  as  I  am,  and  feel  sustained  by  the 
knowledge  that  I  have  fought  my  battle  well.  But 
there  is  no  one  to  tell  of  this  at  the  home-table.  Perti 
nacity,  unwise  daring,  calamity, — any  of  these  may  come 
up  unbidden,  as  my  name  circles  round,  to  explain  why 
I  am  still  away." 

Did  he  turn   from  this   sad   remembrance,  and   the 


182  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


equally  sad  prospect  before  him,  to  make  with  his  own 
hand  an  entry  in  the  log  kept  by  the  first  officer,  as  a 
man  of  faith  plants  an  anchor  in  a  storm  of  trouble  ?  It 
reads  thus: — "Sunday,  December  25.  The  birthday  of 
Christ." 

The  following  letter  to  Mr.  Grinnell,  written  two 
weeks  before  sailing,  serves  to  show  that  we  may  read  in 
this  epitomized  creed  of  Christianity,  a  profession  of  his 
faith,  and  not  a  mere  confession  of  dependency  induced 
by  the  weakness  of  suffering : — 

"My  DEAR  SIR: — All  the  expeditions  in  search  of  Sir 
John  Franklin  have  accompanied  their  daily  inspections 
with  a  short  form  of  prayer  suited  to  the  emergencies  of 
their  peculiar  service. 

"  The  isolated  state  of  our  little  party,  together  with 
its  probable  trials,  call  strongly  for  a  similar  exercise; 
and,  as  the  time  of  our  departure  is  at  hand,  I  write  to 
suggest  that  you  take  the  matter  into  consideration." 

The  "march  of  mind,"  demolishing  another  mystery 
of  nature  at  every  step  in  its  conquering  pathway,  has 
wellnigh  banished  faith  from  our  philosophy  of  life. 
Inductive  science  rejects  the  supernatural.  Chivalry, 
the  religion  of  egotism, — which  substitutes  daring  for  duty, 
generosity  for  charity,  and  honor  for  godliness, — is  our 
explanation  of  heroism  in  its  grandest  manifestations. 
That  a  holier  Spirit  "works  in  any  man  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure,"  is  an  assumption  which 
opinion  in  this  nineteenth  century  of  Christianity  is  shy 
of  admitting. 


SPECIAL    PROVIDENCE.  183 


Dr.  Kane's  heroism  would  have  been  reckless  if  it  had 
not  been  reverent :  he  believed  that  whatever  God  wills 
a  man  may  do :  he  believed  in  special  providence.  His 
life  was  full  of  this  confidence.  In  the  journal  of  his  first 
Arctic  voyage  there  are  such  evidences  of  it  as  these : — 

"April  21. — I  have  mare  than  common  cause  for  thank 
fulness.  A  mere  accident  kept  me  from  starting  last 
night  to  secure  a  bear.  Had  I  done  so,  I  would  probably 
have  spared  you  reading  any  more  of  my  journal.  The 
ice  over  which  we  travelled  so  carelessly  on  Saturday 
has  become,  by  a  sudden  movement,  a  mass  of  floating 
rubbish." 

"llth  of  June. — One  thing  more:  a  thought  of  grati 
tude  before  I  turn  in.  This  journal  shows  that  I  have 
been  in  the  daily  habit  of  taking  long,  solitary  walks 
upon  the  ice,  miles  from  the  ship.  Suppose  this  rupture 
to  have  come  entirely  without  forewarning!" 

In  the  journal  of  his  second  voyage  to  the  Arctic 
region,  among  twenty-two  striking  instances  of  clear 
recognition,  I  quote  an  example  or  two. 

On  the  10th  September,  1854:  "It  is  twelve  months 
to-day  since  I  returned  from  the  weary  foot-tramp  which 
determined  me  to  try  the  winter  search.  Things  have 
changed  since  then,  and  the  prospect  ahead  is  less  cheery. 
But  I  close  my  pilgrim-experience  of  the  year  with 
devout  gratitude  for  the  blessings  it  has  registered,  and 
an  earnest  faith  in  the  support  it  pledges  for  the  times 
to  come." 

Speaking  of  a  time  when  things  were  at  the  worst,  he 


184  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


says,  "  I  look  back  at  it  with  recollections  like  those  of  a 
nightmare.  Yet  I  was  borne  up  wonderfully.  I  never 
doubted  for  an  instant  that  the  same  Providence  which 
had  guarded  us  through  the  long  darkness  of  winter  was 
still  watching  over  us  for  good,  and  that  it  was  yet  in 
reserve  for  us — for  some;  I  dared  not  hope  for  all — to 
bear  back  the  tidings  of  our  rescue  to  a  Christian  land. 
But  how,  I  did  not  see." 

Prayer,  both  in  its  acknowledgments  and  petitions, 
implies  such  reliance  upon  interpositions.  Wilson,  one 
of  the  rescue-party  in  that  ice-journey  which  has  en 
graved  its  record  upon  the  millions  of  hearts  that  have 
followed  its  terrific  details  with  their  sympathies,  says, 
"Just  before  we  started,  [on  the  return  with  the  rescued 
men,]  while  the  rest  of  the  party  surrounded  the  sledge 
with  uncovered  heads,  Dr.  Kane  rendered  thanks  to  the 
Great  Euler  of  human  destinies  for  the  goodness  he  had 
evinced  in  preserving  our  feeble  lives  while  struggling 
over  the  ice-desert,  exposed  to  a  blast  almost  as  wither 
ing  as  that  from  a  furnace.  The  scene  was  extremely 
solemn,  as,  deeply  impressed  by  the  situation,  our  com 
mander  poured  forth  ready  and  eloquent  sentences  of 
gratitude  in  that  lonely  solitude,  whose  scenery  offered 
every  thing  to  depress  the  mind  and  nothing  to  cheer  it. 
Not  a  word  fell  from  his  lips  that  did  not  find  a  ready 
response  in  our  own  hearts  when  we  reflected  upon  the 
dangers  we  had  undergone,  and  the  certainty  of  death 
which  would  have  followed  a  continuance  of  exposure 
for  even  a  few  hours." 


HOW    READEST    THOU?  185 


Journalizing  the  incidents  of  a  day  of  severest  trial, 
danger,  and  despondency,  he  "rendered  to  every  man  a 
reason  for  the  hope  that  was  in  him,"  covering  under 
the  form  of  common  words  the  still  higher  grounds  on 
which  it  rested  for  himself.  He  puts  its  vindication 
thus : — 

"  I  never  lost  my  hope :  I  looked  to  the  coming  spring 
as  full  of  responsibilities,  but  I  had  bodily  strength  and 
moral  tone  enough  to  look  through  them  to  the  end.  A 
trust  based  on  experience  as  well  as  on  promises  buoyed 
me  up  at  the  worst  of  times.  Call  it  fatalism,  as  you 
ignorantly  may,  there  is  that  in  the  story  of  every 
eventful  life  which  teaches  the  inefficiency  of  human 
means  and  the  PRESENT  control  of  a  Supreme  agency. 
See  how  often  relief  has  come  at  the  moment  of  ex 
tremity,  in  forms  strangely  unsought, — almost,  at  the 
time,  unwelcome;  see,  still  more,  how  the  back  has 
been  strengthened  to  its  increasing  burden,  and  the 
heart  cheered  by  some  conscious  influence  of  an  unseen 
Power." 

We  have  underscored  the  words  which  must  be  read 
"  with  the  heart  and  with  the  understanding  also"  to  find 
the  emphasis  which  his  own  faith  and  practice  gave 
them. 

"Kead,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest"  them,  if  you 
would  know  what  they  meant  for  him  and  what  they 
may  be  to  you. 

This  Christian  heroism  that  served  him  for  his  own 
great  trials,  fortified,  by  its  outraying  influence,  his  crew 


186  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


for  theirs.  Within  the  sphere  of  his  life  they  lived  above 
the  level  of  their  own.  One  of  them  answered  me, 
when  I  questioned  him  upon  this  aspect  of  his  govern 
ment  : — "  Well,  it  kept  us  human  when  we  were  nearly 
desperate.  While  we  stood  with  uncovered  heads  in  an 
atmosphere  far  below  zero,  his  prayers  brought  up  the 
spirit  of  society  and  civilization  in  us;  and,  although 
we,  perhaps,  had  very  little  religion  in  us,  we  always 
had  some  about  us." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MOTIVES    AND    OBJECTS — DECLARATION    IN  EXTREMIS — WORKING    UP 
THE   COAST  OP   GREENLAND — GOOD-BYE — A  FATHER'S  TESTIMONY — 

FRANKLIN'S  CHANCES — REFUGE  WITH  THE  NATIVES — SUPPORTING 
AUTHORITIES — SIR  R.  MURCHISON — THE  BRAVE  TRUST  THE  BRAVE — 
CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  SCIENCE — INEDITED  MANUSCRIPTS — THE  OPEN 

SEA — LOGICAL  DEMONSTRATION — THE  DISCOVERY — THE  LAST  THROW 
— WILLIAM  MORTON — FACTS  AND  THEORIES — LIEUTENANT  MAURY — 

KANE'S  OFFICIAL  REPORT — BRITISH  ACHIEVEMENTS — RESULTS  OF 
EXPLORATION — WASHINGTON  LAND — WITHIN  THE  POLAR  ICE-RING. 

"ENTERPRISES  of  great  pith  and  moment"  command 
our  admiration,  sympathy,  and  emulation  with  the  varied 
force  which  the  quality  of  their  motives  and  objects 
deserves.  The  agility  and  courage  of  a  rope-dancer  on  his 
perilous  balance  do  not  affect  us  in  the  same  way  as  the 
generous  daring  displayed  by  a  fireman  in  the  rescue  of 
a  child  from  a  burning  house.  There  is  natural  nobleness 
enough  in  anybody  to  feel  the  difference  between  a  hard 
day's  journey  on  an  errand  of  benevolence,  and  the  feat 
of  walking  a  hundred  successive  hours  for  a  wager.  A 
novelist,  an  orator,  or  a  player,  may  work  upon  the  sym 
pathetic  emotions  of  virtue  until  our  heart-strings  answer 

like  echoes  to  his  touch;  but  we  are  not  deceived  nor 

187 

\ 


188  ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


cheated  into  an  admiration  unworthy  of  ourselves.  We 
were  not  made  in  the  Divine  image  to  take  seemings  for 
things.  Our  instincts  stand  by  the  real  interests  of  the 
world  and  of  the  universe,  and  we  will  not  meanly  sur 
render  our  souls  to  any  imposture.  We  say  to  every 
man  who  challenges  our  admiration  for  his  deeds,  "  Stop ! 
worship  touches  the  life  of  the  worshipper.  If  your 
objects  are  nothings,  expect  nothing  for  them:  if  your 
motives  are  selfish,  pay  yourself  for  them.  We  will  not 
make  fools  of  ourselves:  we  will  settle  the  account  justly 
to  you  and  honorably  to  us." 

"No  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  save  the  spirit 
of  man  which  is  in  him."  Dr.  Kane  speaks  of  the  mo 
tives  which  thrust  him  out  upon  his  last  Arctic  voyage, 
under  circumstances  as  solemn  as  those  which  govern  the 
wording  of  a  last  will  made  within  the  shadpw  of  death. 
I  quote  from  letters  written  as  he  was  about  to  enter  the 
fearful  passage  of  Melville  Bay : — 

"July  14,  1853. 

"DEAR  BROTHER  AND  FRIEND: — Things  look  so  Arctic, 
and  the  big  responsibilities  of  my  undertaking  are  so 
crowding  around  me,  that  I  sit  down  from  very  impulse 
to  give  you  a  brother's  letter  of  confidence. 

"It  is  the  quiet  hour  at  which  you  and  I  begin  to  live; 
lacking  midnight  not  over-much,  yet  in  a  full  glare  of 
day.  The  bergs  of  Omenak's  Fiord  are  marching  down 
from  their  glaciers ;  and  Proven,  our  last  connecting  port 
with  the  white  man's  world,  is  but  a  few  miles  ahead  of 
us.  Melville's  Bay  will  bid  me  its  third  welcome  before 


DECLARATION    IN    EXTREMIS.  189 


three  days  have  passed;  and,  if  it  bids  me  God-speed 
again,  you  will  have  no  more  letters  until  I  announce 
success  or  failuVe. 

"  Now  that  the  thing — the  dream — has  concentred  itself 
into  a  grim,  practical  reality,  it  is  not  egotism,  but  duty, 
to  talk  of  myself  and  my  plans :  I  represent  other  lives 
and  other  interests  than  my  own. 

"The  object  of  my  journey  is  the  search  after  Sir 
John  Franklin:  neither  science  nor  the  vain  glory  of 
attaining  an  unreached  North  shall  divert  me  from  this 
one  conscientious  aim." 

Then  follows  a  long,  minute,  and  exact  programme 
of  his  intended  operations  by  boat  and  sledge  after 
reaching  the  farthest  point  to  which  the  brig  could 
be  pushed, — an  equally  careful  directory  for  any  search 
ing  party  who  might,  perchance,  be  sent  to  relieve 
him  after  a  second  winter's  absence :  and  the  letter  con 
cludes  : — 

"God  bless  you,  my  own  dear  brother.  Do  justice  to 
my  motives,  and  believe  neither  in  unmixed  good  or 
unmixed  evil  in  this  world  of  medley.  Good-bye  !" 

"  GOVEKNOR'S  HOUSE,  UPEENAVICK,  July  23,,  1853. 

"  MY  DEAR  FATHER  : — Looking  through  the  port-holes 
of  this  house-hulk,  I  see  two  hundred  and  sixteen  icebergs 
floating  in  a  sea  as  dead  and  oily  as  the  Lake  of  Tiberias; 
yet  I  cannot  warm  my  thoughts  to  talk  about  them. 
Time  was  when  I  could  have  piled  epithets  upon  such  a 
scene :  but  that  time  has  passed ;  facts  only  are  my  aim 


190  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


now.  The  last  week  has  been  spent  by  me  almost  con 
stantly  in  an  open  boat,  striving  to  overcome  the  delays 
of  an  everlasting  calm  by  making  my  purchases  without 
coming  to  anchor.  This  is  a  somewhat  novel  service  to 
routine  naval  men;  but  I  have  saved  precious  hours  by 
it,  and  now  write  to  bid  you  share  with  me  congratula 
tions. 

"I  have  all  my  furs, — reindeer,  seal,  and  bear;  my 
boot-moccasins,  walrus  lashings,  my  sledges,  harnesses, 
and  dogs, — and  all  of  these  without  delaying  the  brig  an 
hour  upon  her  course !  Dogs  are  here,  as  horses  are  with 
you,  matters  of  negotiation,  and  oftentimes  not  to  be 
obtained.  He  (the  dog)  is  the  camel  of  these  snow- 
deserts  ;  and  no  Arab  could  part  with  him  more  grudgingly 
than  do  these  Esquimaux.  Congratulate  me;  for  I  have 
all  my  dogs,  and  the  tough  thews  of  the  scoundrels  shall 
be  sinews  of  war  to  me  in  my  ice-battles. 

"  In  quest  of  them  I  have  threaded  the  fiords  between 
Kangeit  (about  twenty  miles  south  of  Proven)  and 
Karsiek,  and  thence  to  Upernavick,  once  fifty  miles  at  a 
single  pull.  During  this  hard  labor  we  cooked  birds  upon 
the  rocks,  and  slept  under  buffalo-robes.  Human  desti 
tution — the  filthy  desolation  of  the  Esquimaux  settle 
ments — was  contrasted  with  glories  beyond  conception. 
I  had  never  before  realized  the  grand  magnificence  of 
Greenland  scenery.  It  would  be  profanation  to  attempt 
to  describe  it." 

After  speaking  of  other  and  unexpected  helps,  of  a 
character  that  promised  greatly  more  than  they  fulfilled, 


GOOD-BYE.  191 


he  continues : — "  I  feel  that  something  must  be  achieved ; 
and,  if  your  son  fails  to  bring  back  his  often  and  hard- 
battered  carcass,  he  will  at  least  send  back  a  record  of 
manly  effort  and  hardly-tried-for  success. 

"  Our  brig  is  only  fifteen  miles  from  the  harbor,  trying 
to  fan  her  way  with  a  feeble  off-shore  breeze,  which  has, 
since  I  began  to  write,  ruffled  with  cat's-paw  tremors  the 
surface  of  the  dead  waters.  Our  course  is  now  directly 
for  the  bay ;  and,  as  far  as  my  ice-knowledge  can  predict 
its  condition,  every  thing  is  in  favor  of  a  safe  and  easy 
passage.  Say  this  to  mother,  but  to  no  outside  person, 
as  I  do  not  wish  to  hazard  an  opinion.  Say  to  mother 
to  have  no  fears  on  Arctic  account.  I  am  not  entirely 
well,  but  as  well  as  I  would  be  at  home,  and  so  trusting 
in  the  Great  Disposer  of  good  and  ill  that  I  am  willing 
to  meet  like  a  man  the  worst  that  can  happen  to  one 
secure  of  right,  and  approving,  heart  and  soul,  of  that 
in  which  he  is  engaged.  Good-bye.  E.  K.  K. 

" i  Love'  a®*  my  last  word  is  '  Love.' " 

Dr.  Kane's  published  journals  are  full  of  the  evidences 
of  his  faith  in  the  survivorship  of  at  least  some  of  Frank 
lin's  party,  and  of  his  hopeful  devotion  to  their  rescue. 
His  father,  speaking  from  that  intimacy  and  certainty 
of  knowledge  which  an  unreserved  confidence  afforded, 
in  a  note  published  in  the  papers  of  the  day,  says  of 
him,  "  His  characteristic  with  us  was  his  sensibility  to 
conscientious  impulse.  It  was  this  which  carried  him 
the  second  time  to  the  Polar  sea,  and,  had  God  spared 


192  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


him,  would  have  made  him  return  there  again ;  for  he 
believed,  as  none  but  the  true-hearted  can  believe  any 
thing,  that  some  of  Franklin's  party  were  still  alive,  and 
that  it  was  the  mission  of  his  life  to  reclaim  them.  He 
had  a  child-like  fondness  for  the  affections  of  home;  but 
this,  and  zeal  for  science,  and  ambition  for  fame,  and  all 
else  that  could  connect  itself  with  motive,  was  subordi 
nated  to  his  one  great  conviction  of  duty." 

The  grounds  of  this  confidence  not  only  held  against 
his  own  terrible  experiences  of  Arctic  exposure,  but  arose 
out  of  those  experiences.  In  May,  1854,  after  testing 
the  ability  of  his  party  to  endure  a  temperature  as  low 
as  67°  below  zero,  or  99°  below  the  freezing-point  of 
water,  he  says,  "How  can  my  thoughts  turn  despair 
ingly  to  poor  Franklin  and  his  crew? 

"Can  they  have  survived?  No  man  can  answer  with 
certainty ;  but  no  man,  without  presumption,  can  answer 
in  the  negative. 

"If,  four  months  ago,  surrounded  by  darkness  and 
bowed  down  by  disease,  I  had  been  asked  the  question, 
I  would  have  turned  toward  the  bleak  hills  and  the 
frozen  sea,  and  responded,  in  sympathy  with  them,  ( No.' 
But  with  the  return  of  light  a  savage  people  came  down 
upon  us,  destitute  of  any  but  the  rudest  appliances  of  the 
chase,  who  were  fattening  on  the  most  wholesome  diet 
of  the  region,  only  forty  miles  from  our  anchorage,  while 
I  was  denouncing  its  scarcity. 

"For  Franklin  every  thing  depends  upon  locality; 
but,  from  what  I  can  see  of  Arctic  exploration  thus  far, 


FRANKLIN'S  CHANCES.  193 


it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  circle  of  fifty  miles'  diameter 
entirely  destitute  of  animal  resources. 

"  Of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  picked  men  of  Sir 
John  Franklin  in  1846,  Northern  Orkney  men,  Green 
land  whalers,  so  many  young  and  hardy  constitutions, 
with  so  much  intelligent  experience  to  guide  them,  I 
cannot  realize  that  some  may  not  yet  be  alive ;  that  some 
small  squad  or  squads,  aided  or  not  aided  by  the  Esqui 
maux  of  the  Expedition,  may  not  have  found  a  hunting- 
ground,  and  laid  up,*  from  summer  to  summer,  enough  of 
fuel  and  food  and  seal-skins  to  brave  three,  or  even  four, 
more  winters  in  succession." 

In  the  midst  of  the  last  winter,  long  after  the  daily 
prayer  was  changed  from  "Lord,  accept  our  gratitude, 
and  bless  our  undertaking,"  to  "Lord,  accept  our  grati 
tude,  and  restore  us  to  our  homes,"  his  journal  reads: 
— "  Please  God  in  his  beneficent  providence  to  spare  us  for 
the  work,  I  will  yet  give  one  manly  tug  to  search  the 
shores  of  Kennedy  Channel  for  memorials  of  the  lost, 
and  then,  our  duties  over  here,  and  the  brig  still  prison- 
bound,  enter  trustingly  upon  the  task  of  our  escape." 

In  March,  1856,  ten  full  years  after  the  last  date  of 
Franklin's  record  among  the  living,  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Grinnell : — 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  vessels  cannot  have  been  suddenly 
destroyed,  or  at  least  so  destroyed  that  provisions  and 
stores  could  not  have  been  established  in  a  safe  and  con 
venient  dep6t.  With  this  view,  which  all  my  experience 

of  ice  sustains,  comes  the  collateral  question  as  to  the 

13 


194  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


safety  of  the  documents  of  the  Expedition.  But  this, 
my  friend,  is  not  all.  I  am  really  in  doubt  as  to  the 
preservation  of  human  life.  I  well  know  how  glad  I 
would  have  been,  had  my  duties  to  others  permitted  me, 
to  have  taken  refuge  among  the  Esquimaux  of  Smith's 
Straits  and  Etah  Bay.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  you, 
we  regarded  the  coarse  life  of  those  people  with  eyes  of 
envy,  and  did  riot  doubt  but  that  we  could  have  lived  in 
comfort  upon  their  resources.  It  required  all  my  powers, 
moral  and  physical,  to  prevent  my  men  from  deserting 
to  the  walrus-settlements ;  and  it  was  my  fixed  intention 
to  have  taken  to  Esquimaux  life,  had  Providence  not 
carried  us  through  in  our  hazardous  escape. 

"Now,  if  the  natives  reached  the  seat  of  the  missing 
ships  of  Franklin,  and  there  became  possessed,  by  pilfer 
or  by  barter,  of  the  articles  sent  home  by  Rae  and  Ander 
son,  this  very  fact  would  explain  the  ability  of  some  of 
the  party  to  sustain  life  among  them.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  natives  have  never  reached  the  ships,  or  the 
seat  of  their  stores,  and  the  relics  were  obtained  from 
the  descending  boat, — then  the  central  stores  or  ships  are 
unmolested,  and  some  may  have  been  able,  by  these  and 
the  hunt,  even  yet  to  sustain  life. 

"All  my  men  and  officers  agree  with  me  that,  even  in 
the  desert  of  Rensselaer  Bay,  we  could  have  descended 
to  the  hunting-seats,  and  sustained  life  by  our  guns  or 
the  craft  of  the  natives.  Sad,  and  perhaps  useless,  as  is 
this  reflection,  I  give  it  to  you  as  the  first  outpouring  of 
my  conscientious  opinions." 


SIR    R.    MURCHISON.  195 


We  are  concerned  now  only  with  the  earnestness  of 
Dr.  Kane's  own  convictions,  and  the  reasons  which  held 
his  judgment  in  harmony  with  his  heart  to  his  last  hour 
in  the  dedication  of  his  life  to  the  enterprise  of  rescuing 
the  missing  mariners;  but  this  is  the  right  place  to  give 
the  opinions  of  those  high  authorities  who  held  the  same 
hope,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  after  his  had  gone  with 
him,  unfulfilled,  to  his  grave. 

Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  President  of  the  Royal  Geo 
graphical  Society  of  London,  delivering  the  anniversary 
discourse,  on  the  25th  of  May,  1857,  holds  the  following 
language : — 

"Lastly,  Dr.  Kane  performed  those  extraordinary  re 
searches  beyond  the  head  of  Baffin's  Bay  which  obtained 
for  him  our  gold  medal  at  the  last  anniversary,  the  high 
est  eulogy  of  our  late  President,  and  the  unqualified 
admiration  of  all  geographers. 

"At  that  time,  however,  we  had  not  perused  those 
thrilling  pages  which  have  since  brought  to  our  mind's 
eye  the  unparalleled  combination  of  genius  with  patient 
endurance  and  fortitude  which  enabled  this  young 
American  to  save  the  lives  of  his  associates. 

"With  what  simplicity,  what  fervor,  what  eloquence, 
and  what  truth,  he  has  described  the  sufferings  and  perils 
from  which  he  extricated  his  ice-bound  crew,  is  now  duly 
appreciated;  and  you  must  all  agree  with  me  that  in  the 
whole  history  of  literature  there  never  was  a  work 
written  which  more  feelingly  develops  the  struggles  of 
humanity  under  the  most  intense  sufferings,  or  demon- 


196  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


strates  more  strikingly  how  the  most  appalling  difficulties 
can  be  overcome  by  the  union  of  a  firm  resolve  with  the 
never-failing  resources  of  a  bright  intellect. 

"In  all  these  soul-stirring  pages  there  is  no  passage 
which  comes  more  home  to  the  Englishmen  who  are  still 
advocating  the  search  for  the  relics  of  the  Erebus  and 
Terror  than  that  in  which,  after  judging  from  the  expe 
rience  of  his  own  companions  how  men  of  our  lineage  may 
be  brought  to  bear  intense  cold  and  trail  on  their  existence 
among  the  Esquimaux,  he  thus  soliloquizes : — '  My  mind 
never  realizes  the  complete  catastrophe, — the  destruction 
of  all  Franklin's  crews.  I  picture  them  to  myself  broken 
into  detachments,  and  my  mind  fixes  on  one  little  group 
of  some  thirty  who  have  found  the  open  spot  of  some 
tidal  eddy,  and,  under  the  teachings  of  an  Esquimaux, 
or  perhaps  one  of  their  own  Greenland  whalers,  have 
set  bravely  to  work,  and  trapped  the  fox,  speared  the  bear, 
and  killed  the  seal,  the  walrus,  and  the  whale.  /  think 
of  them  ever  with  hope.  I  sicken  not  to  be  able  to  reach  them.' 

"  These  generous  and  lofty  sentiments,  as  I  shall  after 
wards  point  out  in  dwelling  on  Lady  Franklin's  final 
search,  are  shared  by  that  distinguished  Arctic  officer 
of  the  United  States  navy,  our  associate,  Captain  Hart- 
stene;  and  they  have  justly  awakened  the  hope  in  the 
breasts  of  many  of  my  countrymen  and  myself  that  some 
of  the  fine  young  fellows  who  sailed  with  Franklin  may 
still  be  alive,  and  must,  for  the  honor  of  our  country,  be 
sought  for,  as  well  as  the  debris  and  records  of  the  Ere 
bus  and  Terror." 


THE  BRAVE  TRUST  THE  BRAVE.       197 


If  the  events  of  the  search  now  on  foot  under  the  con 
duct  of  Captain  McClintock,  directed  as  it  is,  by  the 
thorough  but  hitherto  unsuccessful  explorations  of  all 
the  region  round  about,  to  the  spot  where  Franklin  and 
his  companions  must  have  gone,  shall  disprove  Dr.  Kane's 
inferences,  his  mistake  will  be  explained,  to  all  who  under 
stand  his  character,  by  the  tendency  of  an  ardent  mind 
to  believe  every  thing  possible  which,  in  the  like  circum 
stances,  he  could  himself  achieve.  Franklin's  party  could 
not  have  fallen  into  more  hopeless  circumstances  than 
his  own  encountered ;  and  why  should  they  utterly  perish 
when  he  escaped  ?  or,  failing  to  accomplish  so  grand  an 
enterprise  as  his  retreat  to  a  place  of  security,  how  could 
he  believe  that  they  should  perish  helplessly  where  he 
and  his  little  crew  could  survive?  The  leader  of  the 
retreat  from  Smith's  Sound  was  not  the  man  to  appre 
hend  impossibilities  for  resolute  men. 

For  the  OBJECTS  of  this  voyage,  other  than  the  rescue 
of  the  Franklin  party,  and  subordinate  to  it,  but  in  them 
selves  worthy  of  the  man  and  of  his  heroic  endeavor  to 
achieve  them,  I  must,  perforce,  refer  the  reader  to  the 
clear  and  effective  display  which  they  have,  in  the  well- 
known  volumes  which  Dr.  Kane  has  given  to  the  public. 
Especially  would  I  call  the  attention  of  all  who  are 
capable  of  such  inquiries,  to  the  Appendix  of  the  Kane 
Expedition :  it  occupies  nearly  two  hundred  pages  of  the 
second  volume. 

The  mass  of  Dr.  Kane's  million  readers  has  been,  I 
am  safe  in  supposing,  only  too  much  absorbed  by  the 


198  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


narrative  of  the  Expedition  to  turn  patiently  to  the 
scientific  results  so  elaborately  and  yet  so  attractively 
presented  in  the  Appendix. 

If  it  were  possible,  and  at  the  same  time  conformable 
to  the  purpose  and  limits  of  this  memoir,  to  digest  the 
results  which  are  in  danger  of  being  overlooked  by  the 
general  reader,  it  would  be  a  labor  of  love  to  endeavor 
its  accomplishment;  but  that  service  must  be  rendered 
to  the  public  and  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane  as  an 
author  and  cultivator  of  physical  science  under  other 
conditions.  I  expect,  as  I  hope,  that  it  will  be  done  by 
a'  more  competent  hand.  The  mass  of  inedited  manu 
script  left  by  Dr.  Kane  will  some  day  be  material  for  a 
work  such  as  he  would  have  executed,  whenever  the 
man  shall  be  found  to  supply  the  loss  which  natural 
science  sustained  by  his  early  removal  from  his  own  great 
field  of  labor. 

Variously  endowed  as  he  was  for  observing  and  resolv 
ing  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and  skilled  as  he  was, 
beyond  all  men  equally  qualified  for  collecting  the  data, 
in  the  art  of  writing  for  general  instruction,  the  loss  to 
the  public  in  this  unfulfilled  purpose  of  writing  a  book 
of  Arctic  science  such  as  would  have  satisfied  himself, 
is  beyond  estimate,  and,  it  is  to  be  feared,  will  never  be 
wholly  supplied. 

We  are  concerned  now  only  with  Dr.  Kane's  personal 
history,  and  not  otherwise  with  his  scientific  achieve 
ments  than  as  they  illustrate  the  man.  This  involves  his 
theory  of  an  open  sea  at  or  near  the  North  Pole,  and  his 


THE    OPEN    SEA.  199 


announcement  of  an  actual  discovery  of  such  a  body 
of  open  water,  beginning  above  the  eighty-first  degree 
of  north  latitude  and  extending  to  an  unknown  distance 
northward. 

The  grounds  upon  which  he  rested  this  doctrine  are 
fully  set  forth  in  his  lecture  delivered  before  the  American 
Geographical  and  Statistical  Society,  at  New  York,  on  the 
14th  of  December,  1852,  to  which  we  beg  leave  to  refer, 
because  it  cannot  be  condensed  effectively  for  any  pur 
pose  here.  It  is  published  in  the  Appendix  to  his  "  First 
Expedition,"  page  543. 

The  open  sea  discovered  by  the  party  sent  out  in  June, 
1854,  from  the  brig  lying  then  ice-bound  in  Kensselaer 
Harbor,  latitude  78°  37'  10"  North  and  longitude  70°  40' 
West  from  Greenwich,  is  located  at  a  little  above  lati 
tude  81°;  the  linear  distance  from  the  brig  being  one 
hundred  and  ninety-six  miles,  and  the  travel-distance, 
following  the  indentations  of  the  coastline  of  the  bay 
and  channel  intervening,  about  three  hundred  and  twenty 
miles.  William  Morton  and  Hans  Christian,  a  half- 
breed  Esquimaux,  constituted  the  party  who  discovered 
and  reported  it.  Dr.  Kane  and  the  astronomer,  Mr. 
Sontag,  were  at  the  time  ill  of  scurvy;  Dr.  Hayes  had 
just  returned  from  his  survey  of  the  coast  of  Grinnell 
Land,  worn  out  and  snow-blind;  and  of  the  whole  crew 
and  officers  there  were  but  six  well  nien  on  the  health- 
roll.  Four  of  these  were  despatched  in  advance,  with  pro 
visions,  to  the  base  of  the  Great  Glacier,  (one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles'  travel-distance,)  to  endeavor  to  scale 


200  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


and 'survey  it;  and  Morton  and  Hans  were  sent  with 
them,  under  instructions  to  push  to  the  north  across 
Peabody  Bay  and  advance  along  the  more  distant  coast. 

The  period  for  exploration  was  passing  rapidly  away. 
The  party  were  in  the  hapless  condition  described;  but  the 
summer  and  the  objects  of  the  voyage  must  not  be  lost. 
The  journal  has  it: — "I  am  intensely  anxious  that  the 
party  shall  succeed.  It  is  my  last  throw.  They  have 
all  my  views;  and  I  believe  they  will  carry  them  out 
unless  overruled  by  a  higher  Power. 

"But  I  am  not  without  apprehensions  that,  with  all 
their  efforts,  the  Glacier  cannot  be  surmounted. 

"In  this  event,  the  main  reliance  must  be  on  Mr.  Mor 
ton  :  he  takes  with  him  a  sextant,  artificial  horizon,  and 
pocket-chronometer,  and  has  intelligence,  courage,  and 
the  spirit  of  endurance  in  full  measure.  He  is  withal  a 
long-tried  and  trusty  follower." 

This  character  Mr.  Morton  had  earned  by  every  form 
of  trial  to  which  it  could  be  put  through  four  years  of 
close  relations,  beginning  with  the  Arctic  voyage  of  the 
first  Grinnell  Expedition,  in  1850,  of  which  they  were 
both  members;  and  the  after  and  equally  trying  expe 
riences  of  his  worth,  which  continued  unbroken  up  to 
the  death  of  the  leader,  left  the  faithful  follower  and 
friend  with  an  ample  confirmation  of  all  this  confidence 
and  trust. 

He  needs  no  other  certificate  of  character  to  secure 
our  confidence ;  and  he  does  not  need  even  this  with  those 
who  know  him  well. 


THE    DISCOVERY.  201 


Both  to  the  accuracy  and  veracity  of  his  report  Dr. 
Kane  gave  unreserved  credence.  But  he  speaks  of  the 
inferences  to  be  drawn  from  Morton's  narrative  with  his 
characteristic  caution, — the  caution  o^  that  mental  and 
moral  truthfulness  which  led  him  to  utter  the  remark 
able  sentence  that  closes  the  introductory  chapter  to  his 
"First  Expedition:" — " I  might  have  done  more  wisely 
if  I  had  been  content  to  substitute  sometimes  the  educated 
opinions  of  others  for  those  which  impressed  me  at  the 
moment.  My  apology  must  be  that  /  do  not  profess  to 
be  accurate,  'but  truthful!' 

And  now,  when  summing  up  the  points  bearing  upon 
the  great  question  of  an  open  Polar  sea,  he  says,  "I  am 
reluctant  to  close  my  notice  of  this  discovery  without 
adding  that  the  details  of  Mr.  Morton's  narrative  har 
monized  with  the  observations  of  all  our  party;"  and 
then  continues,  "I  do  not  proceed  to  discuss  here  the 
causes  or  conditions  of  this  phenomenon.  How  far  it 
may  extend, — whether  it  exists  simply  as  a  feature  of 
the  immediate  region,  or  as  a  part  of  a  great  and  unex 
plored  area  communicating  with  the  Polar  basin, — and 
what  may  be  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  one  or  the 
other  hypothesis,  or  the  explanation  which  reconciles  it 
with  established  laws, — may  be  questions  for  men  skilled 
in  scientific  deductions.  Mine  has  been  the  more  humble 
duty  of  recording  what  we  saw.  Coming  as  it  did,  a 
mysterious  fluidity  in  the  midst  of  vast  plains  of  solid 
ice,  it  was  well  calculated  to  arouse  emotions  of  the 
highest  order;  and  I  do  not  believe  there  was  a  man 


202  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


among  us  who  did  not  long  for  the  means  of  embarking 
upon  its  bright  and  lonely  waters.  But  he  who  may  be 
content  to  follow  our  story  for  the  next  four  months  will 
feel  that  a  controlling  necessity  made  the  desire  a  fruit 
less  one." 

The  three  following  pages  of  the  book*  are  given  to 
the  consideration,  or  rather  to  the  suggestion  for  the 
reader's  use,  of  certain  facts  involved  in  the  issue;  but 
he  betrays  no  overweening  desire  to  lodge  an  affirmative 
conclusion  in  the  minds  which  he  is  addressing.  On 
the  contrary,  he  disclaims  any  such  inclination,  defer 
ring,  gracefully  as  modestly,  the  theoretical  argument  to 
Lieutenant  Maury,  Superintendent  of  the  National  Ob 
servatory,  who  has  made  the  physical  geography  of  the 
sea,  and  the  currents  of  the  ocean  of  air,  his  own  province 
by  the  cultivation  of  their  science  with  such  success  as 
has  given  him  a  world-wide  fame,  and  an  authority 
among  physicists  growing,  it  may  be  said,  daily  by  the 
constantly  advancing  attainments  of  his  labor. 

Moreover,  in  the  notes  appended  to  the  brief  discussion 
in  which  he  indulges,  he  takes  care  to  guard  the  un 
learned  in  Arctic  phenomena  against  the  hasty  conclu 
sions  which  they  might  draw  from  the  imposing  array  of 
facts  that  support  the  doctrine  of  an  open  water  from  the 
point  observed  to  the  Pole.  He  says,  indeed,  "I  do 
not  see  how,  independently  of  direct  observation,  this 
state  of  facts  can  be  explained  without  supposing  an  ice- 

*  Second  Expedition,  vol.  i.  pp.  306-309. 


KANE'S  OFFICIAL  REPORT.  203 


less  area  to  the  farther  north;"  but,  he  interposes  again, 
"  How  far  this  may  extend — whether  it  does  or  does  not 
communicate  with  a  Polar  basin — we  are  without  facts 
to  determine.  I  would  say,  however,  as  a  cautionary 
check  to  some  theories  in  connection  with  such  an  open 
basin,  that  the  influence  of  rapid  tides  and  currents  in 
destroying  ice  by  abrasion  can  hardly  be  realized  by 
those  who  have  not  witnessed  their  action." 

In  his  official  report  made  to  the  Navy  Department 
after  his  return,  he  states  the  whole  matter  thus : — 

"  This  precipitous  headland,  the  farthest  point  attained 
by  the  party,  was  named  Cape  Independence.  It  is  in 
latitude  81°  22'  N.  and  longitude  65°  35'  W.  It  was 
only  touched  by  William  Morton,  who  left  the  dogs  and 
made  his  way  to  it  along  the  coast.  From  it  the  western 
coast  was  seen  stretching  far  towards  the  north,  with  an 
iceless  horizon,  and  a  heavy  swell  rolling  in  with  white 
caps.  At  a  height  of  about  five  hundred  feet  above  the 
sea  this  great  expanse  still  presented  all  the  appearance 
of  an  open  and  iceless  sea.  In  claiming  for  it  this  cha 
racter  I  have  reference  only  to  the  facts  actually  observed, 
without  seeking  confirmation  or  support  from  any  deduc 
tion  of  theory.  Among  such  facts  are  the  following : — 

"1.  It  was  approached  by  a  channel  entirely  free 
from  ice,  having  a  length  of  fifty-two  and  a  mean  width 
of  thirty-six  geographical  miles. 

"2.  The  coast-ice  along  the  water-line  of  this  channel 
had  been  completely  destroyed  by  thaw  and  water- 
action;  while  an  unbroken  belt  of  solid  ice,  one  hun- 


204  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


dred  and  twenty-five  miles  in  diameter,  extended  to  the 
south. 

"3.  A  gale  from  the  northeast,  of  fifty-four  hours' 
duration,  brought  a  heavy  sea  from  that  quarter,  without 
disclosing  any  drift  or  other  ice. 

"4.  Dark  nimbus  clouds  and  water-sky  invested  the 
northeastern  horizon. 

"5.  Crowds  of  migratory  birds  were  observed  throng 
ing  its  waters." 

In  his  summary  of  the  operations  of  the  Expedition 
in  the  same  document,  thus : — "  The  discovery  of  a  large 
channel  to  the  northwest,  free  from  ice,  and  leading  into 
an  open  and  expanding  area  equally  free.  The  whole 
embraces  an  iceless  area  of  four  thousand  two  hundred 
miles." 

Immediately  after  his  return  from  the  region  in  ques 
tion,  after  closing  an  extemporized  report  of  his  voyage 
and  its  results  before  the  Geographical  Society  of  New 
York,  he  was  asked  by  Mr.  Chauncey,  "Is  it  possible, 
in  your  opinion,  to  reach  this  open  sea  with  boats  and 
explore  it?"  He  answered,  "That  is  coming  rather  near 
home.  I  think,  with  a  proper  organization,  it  might  be 
reached ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  will  yet  be  reached  and 
be  explored." 

He  never  said  or  claimed  more  for  a  circumpolar  open 
sea  discovery  than  this.  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  the 
man  at  thirty-six  years  of  age,  who  wrote  the  Kyestein 
thesis  at  twenty-one,  to  confound  hypothesis  with  dis 
covery,  or  to  mistake  inferences  for  facts  observed.  But 


BRITISH    ACHIEVEMENTS.  205 


that  he  believed  theoretically  in  a  navigable  Polar  sea  is 
abundantly  proved  by  his  adoption  of  the  Smith's  Sound 
route  of  search,  relying,  as  he  did,  upon  an  open  path 
way  from  its  northern  outlet,  east  and  west,  to  the  Green 
land  Sea  or  Wellington  Channel,  as  the  search  might 
eventually  determine.  And  when,  after  all  his  expe 
riences,  and  his  own  failure  for  lack  of  the  necessary 
means,  he  said  that  he  had  no  doubt  it  would  yet  be 
reached  and  explored,  he  uttered  a  prediction,  based  upon 
known  facts,  which,  we  may  safely  venture  to  believe 
with  him,  will  yet  be  fulfilled. 

The  best  corroboration  of  this  expectation  accessible 
to  the  general  reader  to  which  I  can  refer  is  the  eighth 
chapter  of  Maury's  "Physical  Geography  of  the  Sea," 
edition  of  1857. 

Kane  has  left  this  legacy  of  honorable  adventure  to 
his  countrymen,  and  they  will  yet,  and  that  ere  long, 
prove  themselves  worthy  of  the  trust. 

The  magnetic  pole  in  the  Western  hemisphere  has  been 
discovered  and  definitely  located ;  the  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE, 
with  a  portage  insertion,  has  been  found, — a  channel  sealed 
solid  by  Jack  Frost,  or  a  submerged  isthmus  of  obstructing 
rock,  sheeted  with  ice, — no  matter :  the  question  is  solved, 
and  the  discoverer  duly  honored,  putting  that  old  worry 
to  rest.  But,  whether  the  magnetic  pole  fluctuates,  with 
the  frost-pole  for  company,  or  the  water  between  Banks' 
Land  and  Melville  Island  will  not,  British  enterprise  has 
carried  off  the  honors  of  these  achievements. 

It  is  very  certain  now  that  this  passage  will  never  be 


206  ELJSHA   KENT   KANE. 


ploughed  by  the  keels  of  commerce,  or  otherwise  answer 
to  the  venerable  old  hopes  which  hung  upon  its  discovery. 
It  cannot  be  made  a  track  for  the  missionaries  of  religion, 
civilization,  and  learning,  nor  does  it  open  a  gate  for 
military  invasion;  but  the  search  for  it  has  given  us  the 
geography  and  natural  history  of  almost  all  the  land- 
masses  of  the  Western  hemisphere ;  and  the  long  endeavor 
has  fully  repaid  all  the  incident  expenditure  of  wealth, 
labor,  and  life,  so  generously  lavished  upon  it. 

The  whale-fishery  of  the  Greenland  seas  alone  has 
cost  a  hundre  \  times  more  of  sacrifice;  and  we  dare  not 
even  compare  the  benefits  which  trade  reaps  in  whale 
bone  and  fish-oil  with  the  treasures  of  useful  knowledge 
gathered  by  the  liberal  labors  of  science  led  by  benevo 
lence  in  the  Arctic  regions. 

Since  1848,  when  fears  for  the  safety  of  Sir  John 
Franklin  and  his  crews  began  to  be  entertained,  twenty- 
five  expeditions,  employing  thirty-one  vessels  and  costing 
four  millions  of  dollars,  have  attempted  to  solve  the 
mystery  of  his  fate.  The  enterprise  to  which  he  gave 
himself  is  now  known  to  be  a  vain  one,  so  far  as  com 
merce  or  travel  is  concerned,  and  all  the  hopes  of  his 
rescue  are  still  unfulfilled;  but  the  world  has  not  lost 
the  treasure  or  the  lives  which  have  been  expended  in 
the  search  for  the  Northwest  Passage  and  for  the  long- 
lost  mariners. 

The  results  of  these  explorations  make  up  a  grand 
library  of  useful  knowledge.  Geography,  geology,  me 
teorology,  have  gained  largely  by  the  great  undertaking; 


WASHINGTON    LAND.  207 


and,  when  the  contributions  which  it  has  made  to  our 
stock  of  knowledge  come  to  be  thoroughly  understood, 
it  will  be  time  to  estimate  adequately  the  worth  of  Arctic 
adventure. 

The  two  American  expeditions  in  which  Dr.  Kane 
participated  and  of  which  he  was  the  historian,  and  that 
of  Captain  Hartstene,  of  which  he  and  his  companions 
were  the  object,  have  secured  some  of  the  grandest  prizes 
of  geographical  enterprise  which  the  nineteenth  century 
has  aimed  at:  De  Haven  baptized  the  most  northern 
land  of  the  American  continent  with  ;^n  American 
name,  and  Kane  has  put  that  of  Washington  upon  the 
most  northern  land  on  the  globe ! 

It  is  something,  surely,  to  have  discovered  the  position 
of  the  magnetic  pole  and  the  geographic  range  of  the 
lowest  temperature.  It  is  something  to  have  traced  the 
great  current-system  of  the  ocean, — to  have  demon 
strated  its  circulation  from  the  earth's  tropic  heart  to  its 
polar  extremities,  bearing  out  its  arterial  heat,  and  re 
turning  the  great  centripetal  tides,  as  the  veins  return 
the  life-currents  to  their  source  for  revivification. 

Arctic  exploration  has,  within  the  last  forty  years, 
done  as  much  for  physical  geography  as  the  labors  of 
the  same  period  have  accomplished  in  any  other  depart 
ment  of  natural  knowledge;  and,  much  as  it  has  yielded 
of  mature  fruit,  it  has  brought  us,  besides,  to  the  open 
portal  of  a  new  world  of  terrestrial  discovery.  The  Polar 
sea  opened  to  observation  by  the  Kane  Expedition  of  1854 
promises  still  more  than  all  that  has  yet  been  secured. 


208  ELISHA    KENT     KANE. 


For  there,  within  the  barrier  of  perpetual  ice,  is  the 
treasury  of  the  ocean-tides;  there  is  the  nursery  of  that 
migratory  life  which  fills  the  seas  and  air  of  the  northern 
temperate  zone;  there  the  wondrous  compensations  of 
polar  and  tropical  forces  are  displayed ;  there  stands  the 
observatory  of  the  globe,  its  chemical  laboratory,  the 
theatre  of  its  meteoric  exhibitions,  and  a  thousand  secrets 
besides,  to  enrich  the  natural  sciences,  and  to  correct  and 
adjust  all  that  we  already  know  of  the  system  of  our 
planet  in  accordance  with  the  truth  and  beauty  of  its 
paramount  laws. 

None  of  these  things  are  so  remote  as  the  movements 
of  the  solar  system.  They  cannot  be  of  less  moment  to 
us.  They  must  be  available  for  extending  the  control 
of  man  over  the  material  agencies  by  which  he  is  sur 
rounded;  and  they  are  all  here  put  within  our  reach. 
The  way  is  opened;  the  route  is  charted;  its  practica 
bility  is  proved;  and  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  the  grand 
results  of  a  well-appointed  expedition,  guided  by  the  suc 
cesses,  and  guarded  by  the  failures,  of  that  one  whose  first- 
fruits  are  the  assuring  promise  of  the  full  harvest. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  NATURAL  SCIENCES — GLACIOLOGY — RELIEF-EXPEDITl 
HARTSTENE — DR.  JOHN  K.  KANE— THE    KNIGHT   AND 
THE  THREE  CAPTAINS — AUTHORSHIP  AGAIN — PAINS  AND  PENALTIES 

AUTHOR  AND  PUBLISHERS — THE  UNWRITTEN  BOOK — ENGRAVINGS 

MR.  HAMILTON — DR.  KANE*S  DRAWINGS ARTISTIC    SKILL — FACI 
LITY  AND  FIDELITY — CONGRESSIONAL  SUBSCRIPTION POPULAR  AND 

PUBLIC    PATRONAGE THE  AUTHOR^    INVOLVEMENT — THE    SECRE 
TARY'S  COMMENDATION TESTIMONIALS  AND  MEDALS. 

IT  has  been  my  proper  business  to  study  Dr.  Kane's 
published  journals  with  care.  Whoever  will  do  the 
same  thing  with  the  interest  in  their  contributions  to 
natural  science  which  they  deserve  will  feel  something  of 
the  reluctance  with  which  I  forego  their  presentation  in 
this  work.  But  it  was  not  until  I  was  alarmed  by  the  vast 
range  of  these  topics  to  which  the  drift  of  the  last  chapter 
had  well-nigh  committed  me,  that  I  felt  at  once  the  full 
force  of  the  onward  impulse,  and  the  severity  of  those 
restraints  of  my  plan  and  limits  which  compel  me  to 
break  away  from  the  seductive  entanglement. 

There  are  treasures  of  tribute  here  to  the  sciences  of 
physical  geography,  zoology,  meteorology,  climatology, 

and  anthropology,  which  their  cultivators  will  do  well  to 

14  209 


210  ELISHA    KENT   KANE. 


avail  themselves  of.  Some  acquaintance  with  the  pre 
sent  state  and  requirements  of  these  departments  of 
physical  philosophy  warrants  me  in  directing  attention  to 
these  books, — more  especially  to  his  first  journal  of 
exploration,  which,  after  all,  is  the  book  of  the  two. 

The  savans  are  just  now  very  earnestly  engaged,  as 
upon  a  fresh  field  of  inquiry,  with  that  branch  of  phy 
sical  geography  which  may  be  called  glaciology.  They 
may  £nd  in  Dr.  Kane's  publications  a  mine  of  wealth 
ready  and  available  for  their  use.  For  nine  months  of 
his  first  voyage  the  "Advance"  lay  docked  in  an  ice- 
cradle,  and  at  the  same  time  adrift,  making  a  tour  of  a 
thousand  miles  on  the  Arctic  sea  under  bare  poles.  The 
daily  study  of  the  ice,  through  this  long  period,  by  a 
man  qualified  as  he  was  to  observe,  digest,  and  report, 
is  necessarily  full  of  instruction.  In  his  second  voyage 
he  had  the  opportunities  of  two  winters  nearer  to  the 
Pole  than  any  other  observer  with  his  means  and  capa 
bility  for  exact  observation  has  ever  been.  His  zeal  and 
industry  in  the  study  of  the  phenomena  presented,  and 
his  exactitude  in  recording  the  results,  have  no  parallel 
in  the  history  of  Arctic  exploration.  We  venture,  for  these 
reasons,  to  advise  those  who  have  gone  through  his  volumes 
under  the  influence  of  their  other  fascinations,  to  read 
and  re-read  them  till  they  can  see  through  the  enchant 
ment  the  substance  of  the  physical  truths  which  the 
genius  of  the  writer  has  veiled  with  its  brilliancy. 

Even  the  principal  incidents  of  the  last  voyage  must 
be  allowed  to  pass  without  a  record  here.     Indeqd,  they 


OMISSIONS    SUPPLIED.  211 


may  well  be  trusted  to  his  own  report,  which  has  been, 
and  will  be,  read  by  millions  who  will  never  open  the  lids 
of  this  mere  supplement  to  the  Life  of  Kane  uncon 
sciously  written  into  the  texture  of  his  own  publications. 

There  are  some  things,  however,  omitted  in  that  "epic 
of  manly  endurance" — things  which  he  would  not  record : 
they  are  those  which  wholly  concerned  himself.  Some 
thing  of  all  this  has  been  supplied  by  three  of  his  com 
panions  in  the  Expedition,  and  they  are  given  at  the  close 
of  these  chapters,  for  their  importance  as  the  testimony 
of  men  well  qualified  to  speak  to  the  points,  and  worthy 
of  all  reliance. 

It  is  due  to  these  gentlemen  to  say  here  that  these 
letters  were  not  prepared'  for  publication ;  but  I  use  my 
liberties  at  my  own  discretion.  The  reader  will  thank 
me  for  presenting,  and  I  will  thank  the  writers  for  fur 
nishing,  them ;  which  must  settle  the  account  between  all 
parties,  as  it  must  settle  all  the  others  which  I  have 
opened  so  freely  in  the  compilation  of  these  pages. 

In  our  narrative  we  left  Dr.  Kane  and  his  party,  on 
their  way  to  the  unknown  North,  on  the  verge  of  that 
fearful  ice-ring  which  environs  the  mystery  kept  secret 
since  the  world  began,  but  now  made  manifest,  and  by 
the  revelations  of  its  prophet  made  known  to  all  nations. 

This  allusion  is  neither  irreverent  nor  unwarranted; 
for  the  courage  and  virtue  which  inspire  the  knight- 
errants  of  noble  adventure  are  the  selfsame  qualities 
which  made  Israel  to  prevail  with  the  angel,  and  gave 
Paul  his  victories  over  the  spiritual  foes  which  beset 


212  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


him.  The  good  purposes  of  a  great  soul  rise  orderly 
into  the  supernatural :  they  are  always  sacrificial;  they 
have  ever  the  tone  of  devotion  and  the  spirit  of  martyr 
dom;  and  they  take  its  risks,  too.  Why  should  they  be 
levelled  in  our  apprehension  to  the  plane  of  a  common 
place  life,  or  be  muddied  with  its  low-pitched  motives, 
or  be  measured  by  its  standards? 

When  the  second  winter  set  in  without  bringing  home 
the  Advance  and  her  crew,  the  most  serious  alarm  for 
their  fate  was  felt  by  the  friends  of  the  adventurers  and 
by  the  whole  mass  of  their  countrymen.  These  fore 
bodings  were  darkened  beyond  the  ordinary  apprehen 
sion  of  danger  in  Arctic  service  by  the  fact  that  their 
first  winter  had  been  an  unusually  severe  one,  and  by 
the  known  deficiencies  of  their  outfit  for  the  endurance 
of  a  second  one  in  the  ice.  Congress  was  memorialized 
by  the  learned  societies  who  stood  sponsors  for  the  under 
taking;  and  the  general  sentiment  of  the  people  pressed 
upon  their  representatives  and  public  servants  for  a 
relief-expedition  in  the  spring.  It  was  frankly  accorded, 
and  well  provisioned,  and  better  manned  and  officered. 

Two  vessels,  the  bark  Release  and  the  propeller 
Arctic,  under  command  of  Lieutenant  Hartstene,  U.S.N., 
with  a  brother  of  Dr.  Kane, — Dr.  John  K.  Kane, — and 
Lieutenant  W.  S.  Lovell,  an  Arctic  expert  and  former 
companion  of  Dr.  Kane,  among  the  volunteers.  They 
left  New  York  on  the  31st  of  May,  1855,  exactly  two 
years  after  the  Advance  had  taken  her  departure  from 
the  same  port. 


DR.  JOHN    K.    KANE.  213 


After  a  run  round  Baffin's  Bay,  including  encounters 
with  icebergs,  ice-fields,  hummocks,  and  the  usual  assort 
ment  of  circumstances  which  characterize  that  sea  of 
troubles, — made  in  the  best  time,  in  the  best  style,  and 
to  the  best  purpose  of  all  the  voyages  into  that  region, — 
they  picked  up  the  lost  adventurers  on  their  homeward 
way,  after  they  had  achieved  for  themselves  a  deliverance 
from  all  their  dangers. 

For  the  story  of  this  relief-trip  by  Hartstene  we  refer 
to  Putnam's  Magazine  for  May,  1856,  written  by  Dr. 
John  K.  Kane.  It  is  well  worth  the  reading  for  all  the 
usual  and  unusual  reasons,  and  for  this  besides :  that  it 
is  rich  with  the  relish  of  the  Kane  pluck  which  there  is 
in  it,  and  for  those  relief-touches  of  happy  authorship 
which  distinguish  the  style  and  movement  of  his  elder 
brother's  pen. 

A  word  of  our  own  gossip,  to  mark  the  conjunction  of 
things  at  Lievely,  where  Hartstene  found  the  Kane  party 
just  on  the  eve  of  making  their  way  home  in  a  Danish 
vessel  by  way  of  the  Shetland  Islands,  and  we  finish  this 
voyage  of  suffering  and  success,  defeat  and  victory, 
strangely  mixed  till  they  landed  in  safety  at  New  York, 
on  the  llth  of  October,  1855,  after  a  thirty  months' 
absence. 

When  the  first  news  of  the  relief-vessels  of  Hartstene 
were  announced  to  the  forlorn  survivors  of  the  Arctic 
crew,  McGary,  Dr.  Kane's  "  iron  man,"  sore  with  the  toils 
and  dangers  of  a  thirteen-hundred-mile  trip  in  an  open 
boat  through  Smith's  Sound  and  Melville  Bay,  said, 


214  ELISHA   KENT  KANE. 


"  There,  now !  we  have  had  all  our  hard  work  for  nothing." 
"What!"  said  Dr.  Kane,  turning  sharply  on  him;  "are 
you  sorry  that  we  owe  our  deliverance  to  our  own  exer 
tions?'' 

It  was  the  knight  and  the  squire,  the  seer  and  his  ser 
vant,  over  again, — the  joint  adventure,  the  equal  peril,  the 
fellowship  of -daring,  doing,  and  enduring,  with  all  the 
difference  between  the  spiritual  and  natural  in  the  re 
spective  characters  of  the  inspiration  and  impulse. 

The  parties  to  this  brief  dialogue,  alas !  knew  not  then 
how  much  they  had  yet  to  pay  for  the  honors  which 
they  had  purchased.  McGary,  who  once  stood  to  his 
oar  for  twenty-two  unbroken  hours,  without  relaxing  his 
attention  or  his  efforts,  in  a  frenzied  sea,  and  his  com 
mander,  who  stood  at  his  unresting  toil  for  thirty  months, 
have  both  paid  with  their  lives  the  price  of  the  strength 
they  borrowed  for  the  demands  of  that  terrible  service. 

De  Haven  commanded  the  first  American  expedition 
to  the  icy  ocean  of  the  North;  Dr.  Kane,  the  second; 
Hartstene,  the  third  and  last :  the  navy  lost  no  honor  by 
either  of  them. 

When  Hartstene  was  on  his  way,  with  all  the  dangers 
of  his  search  immediately  before  him,  he  wrote  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  "To  avoid  further  risk  of  hu 
man  life  in  a  search  so  extremely  hazardous,  I  would 
suggest  the  impropriety  of  making  any  efforts  to  relieve 
us  if  we  should  not  return." 

That  will  do  for  the  character  of  the  man :  a  single 
incident  will  serve  for  a  sample  of  his  conduct.  When 


AUTHORSHIP    AGAIN.  215 


his  ship  was  in  peril  he  conned  her  for  thirty-six  hours, 
without  a  moment's  rest.  His  position  was  at  the  mast 
head  :  he  had  a  sprained  ankle  and  a  lame  arm, — his 
only  diversion  through  the  long  and  anxious  watch ! 

Our  readers  by  this  time  will  be  thinking  that  there 
are  some  chances  for  heroism  in  the  navy  without  blood 
shed.  If  they  do,  they  may  hurrah,  without  reserve  or 
protest,  for  Harts tene  and  De  Haven,  who  still  adorn  the 
service. 

Dr.  Kane  announced  his  safe  return  to  the  Hon.  John 
P.  Kennedy  by  letter  written  before  he  landed  in  New 
York,  dated  "Entering  Sandy  Hook,  Bark  Release, 
October  11,  1855."  He  says,  "We  are  back  again  safe 
and  sound,  after  an  open-air  travel  by  boats  and  sledges 
of  thirteen  hundred  miles."  Soon  after  this,  when  he 
met  his  friend  he  told  him,  "  My  health  is  almost  absurd : 
I  have  grown  like  a  walrus." 

This  stock  of  unwonted  strength  was  now  to  be 
employed  in  the  composition  and  illustration  of  the  book 
which  he  entitled  "Arctic  Explorations:  The  Second 
Grinnell  Expedition  in  Search  of  Sir  John  Franklin, 
1853-54-55." 

The  labor  upon  it  was  soon  commenced  and  long  sus 
tained.  The  toils  arid  risks  under  which  its  materials 
were  gained  were  not  greater  to  him  than  this  task  of 
artist-authorship  in  which  he  was  now  engaged.  Nine 
hundred  pages  of  book-matter  carried  through  in  little 
more  than  six  months  is,  in  his  own  language,  "  no  fun ;" 
but  add  to  this  three  hundred  engravings  made  from  his 


216  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


own  sketches,  whose  execution,  from  the  moment  they 
went  into  the  hands  of  the  designer  till  the  last  proof- 
impression  came  from  the  printer,  required  his  own 
supervision,  and  complicate  all  this  with  the  thousand 
demands  made  upon  his  time  and  toil  by  the  celebrity- 
tax  levied  upon  him  at  this  time,  and  an  Arctic  voyage 
will  appear  almost  as  nothing  to  the  travail  of  his  last 
cruise  in  the  troubled  waters  of  "  authordom." 

The  narrative  was  finished  some  time  in  June ;  but 
the  Appendix  was  a  worry  till  September,  when  the  book 
was  issued. 

The  pains  and  penalties  are  graphically  rendered  in 
his  letters  to  Mr.  Childs,  of  the  publishing  firm  of  Childs 
&  Peterson.  Brief  extracts,  grouped  in  the  order  of 
their  dates,  are  expressive  enough,  and  sufficiently 
explain  themselves : — 

"  The  wretched  book !  there  is  no  reason  that  the  whole 
incubus  should  not  be  off  our  hands  this  week. — 3£  A.M." 

"The  rest  of  your  requests  shall  be  complied  with. 
At  present  the  letters  are  dancing  up  and  down,  and  I 
think  that  bed  is  the  best  place  for  me. — 3  A.M." 

"  My  wish  is  to  make  a  centre-table  book,  fit  as  well 
for  the  eyes  of  children  as  of  refined  women." 

"  Now  that  the  '  exploration'  is  over,  I  attempt  to  be 
more  popular  and  gaseous  :  this  latter  inflated  quality  in 
excess.  Most  certainly  my  effort  to  make  this  book 
readable  will  destroy  its  permanency  and  injure  me.  It 
is  a  sacrifice. — May  25." 

"  Very  glad  the  poor  book  meets  your  views.    Author- 


AUTHOR   AND    PUBLISHERS.  217 


dom  has  again  overdone  me.  I  will  have  to  take  a  spell 
soon. — June  7." 

"My  health  is  nothing  extraordinary  under  this 
extreme  heat;  but  I  think  that  I  have  accumulated 
enough  of  nerve-force  to  carry  me  through  to  that  omi 
nously  pleasant  word,  '  Finis.' — June  14." 

"  With  little  spirit  of  congratulation,  and  much  weari 
ness,  I  send  you  the  preface,  which  completes  my  text. 
I  am  not  the  first  who  has  manufactured  an  antecedent 
ex  post  facto;  and  there  is  a  sort  of  moral  conveyed  by 
this  ending  of  my  labors.  Now  that  the  holy  day  is  at 
hand,  I  am  ungrateful  enough  to  complain  that  it  finds 
me  without  the  capacity  to  enjoy  it. — July  4." 

"  Do  send  in  rapidly  the  proofs  of  the  Appendix,  and 
thus  shorten  my  slavery. — July  23." 

"My  health  goes  on  as  usual.  Something  is  the 
matter,  for  I  get  weaker  every  day.  I  tried  Long  Island 
bathing,  but  I  could  not  stand  it. — July  30." 

"  I  am  now  convinced  that  my  enemy  is  a  combina 
tion  of  rheumatism  and  the  Arctic  scourge  of  scurvy. — 
August  9." 

"  My  motion  being  impeded  by  my  maladies,  I  would 
regard  it  as  a  favor  if  you  could  come  to  me  for  a  few 
minutes. — August  21." 

"  I  am  unable  to  announce  any  improvement  in  my 
health.— September  18." 

"  At  present  I  see  no  possible  chance  of  being  able  to 
work  in  any  way ;  and  the  unanswered  letters  which 
crowd  around  me  might  well  appall  an  abler  man.  1 


218  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


leave  in  a  fortnight,  probably  for  Europe,  as  a  sort  of  last 
resource,  to  catch  my  lost  blessing.  The  book,  poor  as 
it  is,  has  been  my  coffin. — September  23,  1856." 

His  own  unaffected  opinion  of  the  book  is  to  be 
gathered  from  what  we  have  quoted,  and  from  another 
equally  private  and  earnest  utterance  which  the  letter- 
book  of  Mr.  Childs  furnishes.  Mr.  Childs  took  the 
liberty  of  striking  from  the  proof-sheet  of  the  preface  the 
following  paragraph,  after  it  had  passed  through  the 
author's  hands  to  go  into  type  : — "  I  might  excuse  myself 
for  the  thousand  imperfections  which  haste  and  official 
preoccupation — and  something,  too,  of  the  indisposition 
which  a  weary  man  may  feel  to  retrace  in  the  closet 
what  was  either  exciting  or  irksome  in  the  field — have 
no  doubt  impressed  on  my  pages.  But  my  apology 
would  be  of  little  worth ;  for  I  know  how  imperfect  the 
book  is  while  I  am  giving  it  to  the  public.'* 

His  fight  for  freedom  in  the  preface,  which  he  inno 
cently  supposed  to  be  the  author's  preserve, — his  own 
absolute  domain, — was  a  vigorous  one;  but  the  auto 
cracy  of  the  press  would  not  allow  the  modesty  of  the 
author  to  depreciate  the  book  in  the  market. 

He  has  his  last  word  with  them  in  another  note.  He 
says: — "After  the  opus  magnum  now  in  your  hands,  I 
hope  to  publish,  either  through  the  Smithsonian  or  the 
Government,  a  work  on  Ice,  for  reputation  sake." 

This  purpose  and  its  motive  put  its  whole  meaning 
into  the  first  sentence  of  the  published  preface: — "This 
book  is  not  a  record  of  scientific  investigations ;"  and  it 


DR.  KANE'S  DRAWINGS.  219 


makes  us  understand,  besides,  how  much  of  the  best  fruits 
of  his  life's  studies  and  achievements  were  reserved  for 
a  fitting  presentment  to  the  world. 

Of  the  engravings  of  the  work,  Dr.  Kane  says,  in  his 
preface,  "Although  largely,  and  in  some  cases  exclu 
sively,  indebted  for  their  interest  to  the  artistic  skill  of 
Mr.  Hamilton,  they  .are,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
from  sketches  made  on  the  spot." 

Their  excellence  has  had  a  large  share  of  the  admira 
tion  given  to  the  work.  Reviewers  have  turned  aside 
from  the  drift  of  their  argument  to  give  them  due  com 
mendation.  Taking  one  from  a  hundred  criticisms 
entitled  to  high  respect,  that  of  Blackwood's  Edinburgh 
Magazine  may  stand  for  the  whole  of  them : — "  The 
engravings  of  Dr.  Kane's  book,"  says  this  high  authority, 
"  are  eminently  happy  as  the  productions  of  a  man  who 
is  a  real  poet  in  art,  Mr.  Hamilton,  whose  good  taste 
scatters  beautiful  vignettes  like  gems  through  the  two 
volumes,  and  invests  the  whole  work  with  a  halo  of 
romance  mysterious  as  the  effects  of  light  in  those 
Northern  regions,  and  which  could  scarcely  have  been 
produced  by  the  power  of  words  or  the  letter-press." 

For  more  than  a  month  of  the  time  during  which  the 
artist  was  engaged  upon  these  illustrations,  he  occupied 
the  doctor's  own  rooms,  that  night  and  day  might  be 
given  to  their  execution.  Such  were  Mr.  Hamilton's 
opportunities  for  forming  an  opinion  of  the  author's 
capabilities  as  a  sketcher :  his  competency  is  attested  by 


220  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


his  admitted  pre-eminence  as  a  landscape  and  marine 
painter. 

He  has  kindly  and  cheerfully  furnished  me  with  the 
following  letter: — 

"July  1,  1857. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Your  note  requesting  me  to  transmit  to 
you  my  impressions  respecting  the  late  Dr.  Kane's 
sketches  is  received. 

"Although  fully  conscious  of  the  very  small  import 
ance  which  can  attach  to  any  thing  I  can  say  in  refer 
ence  to  any  matter  connected  with  the  illustrious 
explorer,  it  nevertheless  affords  me  great  pleasure  to 
communicate  to  you  my  '  opinion'  on  this  subject. 

"  One  of  the  most  prominent  features  of  the  doctor's 
sketches,  and  one  which  I  think  must  strike  the  most 
cursory  observer  at  all  conversant  with  art  or  nature,  is 
the  air  of  simple,  earnest  truthfulness  which  pervades 
them.  These  qualities,  without  which  the  most  labored 
efforts  are  comparatively  worthless,  exist  to  an  extent 
which  confers  importance  on  the  most  insignificant  of 
them, — the  great  bulk  of  them  being  directly  from 
nature,  and  embracing  scenery  and  incident  not  only 
from  the  Arctic  regions,  but  from  the  four  quarters  of 
the  globe,  made  during  his  various  journeys  and  explora 
tions. 

"  In  glancing  over  Dr.  Kane's  drawings  and  sketches, 
it  will  be  perceived  that,  whether  executed  with  every 
appliance  and  facility  which  modern  ingenuity  can 


ARTISTIC    SKILL.  221 


furnish,  or  with  the  half-thawed  ink  and  greasy  paper 
or  pasteboard  accidentally  picked  up  among  the  rubbish 
of  the  •  ship's  store-room,  there  is  distinctly  traceable  in 
all  the  ever-present  influence  of  one  all-absorbing  object, 
— the  faithful  record  of  the  most  essential  features  and 
qualities  of  the  subject  or  scene  before  him. 

"Hundreds  of  illustrative  instances  might  be  readily 
selected  from  his  well-filled  folios  and  note-books.  I  will 
refer  to  a  few  of  those  which  furnished  the  material  for 
some  of  the  illustrations  of  the  <  Arctic  Explorations.' 

"  First,  we  will  select  that  of '  the  great  green  minaret,' 
Tennysons  Monument.  The  original  sketch  is  of  the 
slightest  description,  and  in  lead-pencil. 

"  Now,  every  one  accustomed  to  study  nature  practi 
cally  is  aware  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  rendering  the 
peculiar  texture  and  tone  of  old,  time-worn,  weather- 
beaten  rock,  sandstone,  crushed  debris,  &c.  Its  success 
ful  rendition  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  achievements  of 
landscape  art.  In  the  sketch  of  the  subject  alluded  to, 
these  qualities  (notwithstanding  the  '  coldness  and  sick 
ness'  suffered  at  the  time  of  executing  it,  mentioned  by 
the  lamented  navigator  in  his  journal)  are  secured  to  an 
extent  that  would  be  creditable  to  the  most  skilful  artist: 
every  fragment  is  jotted  down  with  a  perception  and 
feeling  which  seize  the  special  character  of  the  minutest 
particle  defined,  and  yet  its  minutiae  in  no  way  conflict 
ing  with  the  grandeur  of  the  subject. 

"In  the  subjects  of  the  Three  Brother  Turrets,  the 
Look-Out  from  Cape  George  Russell,  Cape  Cornelius  Grin- 


222  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


nell,  Northumberland  Island,  Thackeray  Headland,  The 
Cliffs,  Glacier  Bay,  Beechey  Island,  and  in  scores  of  a 
similar  kind,  he  has  been  quite  as  successful. 

"  With  the  exception  of  the  shattered  ice-belt  and  the 
piles  of  frozen  rubbish  which  are  incessantly  accumulating 
on  the  Arctic  shores  in  the  most  picturesque  combina 
tions,  ice  and  its  numberless  formations  present  fewer 
difficulties  to  the  draughtsman  (owing  to  its  sharply 
defined  forms  and  striking  contrasts)  than  any  of  those 
mentioned.  Yet  in  this  department  we  find  the  doctor 
exercising  the  same  observance  of  local  peculiarities  as 
in  others  presenting  more  complicated  difficulties. 

"  Most  of  his  ice-studies  are  in  pen-and-ink  outlines, 
with  a  wash  of  the  same  material — common  writing-ink — 
for  background.  Some  of  them  are  extremely  good  and 
imposing  in  their  effects. 

"The  Icebergs  ,  near  Kosoak,  the  Great  Glacier  of 
Humboldt,  Weary  Men's  Rest,  are  all  done  in  this  man 
ner;  together  with  numberless  others,  such  as  Ice-foot, 
Ice-hills,  Ice-rafts,  Ice-belts,  Ice-plains,  &c.  &c.  Many  of 
them  are  far  better  adapted,  pictorially,  for  engraving 
than  any  in  the  <  Explorations/  This  applies  especially 
to  some  of  the  great  glacier-scenery. 

"I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  could  his  sketches 
be  placed  before  the  public,  they  would  add  still  further, 
if  that  were  possible,  to  his  reputation  as  an  Arctic 
explorer. 

"  From  these  few  straggling  and  imperfectly  expressed 
ideas  you  can  infer  my  opinion  of  Dr.  Kane's  abilities  as 


FACILITY    AND    FIDELITY.  223 


an  amateur  artist,  which  is,  as  I  understand  you,  the 
object  of  your  inquiry." 

In  a  postscript  Mr.  Hamilton  adds : — "  Another  very 
note-worthy  feature  of  the  doctor's  sketching  was  the 
extreme  rapidity  with  which  it  was  executed.  In 
illustrating  his  wishes  upon  any  particular  subject,  I 
have  frequently  seen  him  make  slight  drawings  which 
required  but  a  very  few  additional  touches  to  render  them 
complete." 

Mr.  Hamilton  has  given  the  deserved  emphasis  to  Dr. 
Kane's  artistic  fidelity.  His  moral  veracity  was  akin  to 
it,  if  not  its  source  and  spring.  There  is  a  wide  differ 
ence  between  them,  or  there  may  be;  but  they  were  but 
one  in  him :  he  frequently  exacted  as  many  as  a  dozen 
successive  drawings  of  the  same  subject  before  he  was 
satisfied  with  the  accuracy  and  truth  of  the  representa 
tion.  In  a  note  at  the  end  of  the  first  volume  he  repu 
diates  two  of  the  prints  for  the  reason  that  his  sketches 
had  been  modified  by  the  artist. 

I  need  add  nothing  to  Mr.  Hamilton's  opinion  of  the 
sketches,  which  number  hundreds,  running  up  into  the 
thousands,  except  that  many  of  them  were  made  in  the 
open  air,  under  a  killing  temperature,  by  a  sick  man, 
with  the  broad  shoulders  of  Morton,  Stephenson,  or 
McGary  for  his  easel,  and  lead-pencils  for  his  imple 
ments. 

Have  we  given  an  adequate  idea  of  the  artist  and 
author  work  that  went  into  the  book? 

When  the  publication  was  so  far  under  way  as  to  insure 


224  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


its  early  completion,  the  publishers  undertook,  with  the 
author's  assent,  to  secure  a  subscription  from  Congress 
for  a  certain  number  of  copies.  A  bill,  under  the  conduct 
of  the  Honorable  J.  K.  Tyson,  and  with  thte  hearty  co 
operation  of  Colonel  Florence,  of  Philadelphia,  Judge 
Pettit,  of  Indiana,  Governor  Aiken,  of  South  Carolina, 
Speaker  Banks,  of  Massachusetts,  and  many  others 
among  the  leading  men  of  the  House,  was  passed.  In 
the  Senate  it  was  ably  supported  by  Governor  Bigler, 
Judge  Douglas,  Governor  Seward,  Mr.  Sumner,  and  Judge 
Butler,  but  was  not  passed. 

The  reports  of  other  explorations  had  been  published 
at  a  lavish  expenditure  of  money  by  the  Government : 
the  publishers  thought  that  the  purchase  by  Congress 
of  a  limited  number  of  copies  would  come  within  the 
rule  of  these  precedents,  and  Dr.  Kane  felt  like  asking 
it  on  the  plain  grounds  of  justice  to  his  enterprise;  but 
he  was  governed  by  the  interests  of  the  firm  which  had 
undertaken  the  publication  at  an  expense  exceeding 
seventy  thousand  dollars  for  the  first  edition  of  the  work, 
in  giving  his  consent  to  the  application,  more  than  by 
any  other  motive.  He  could  not  persuade  himself  that 
they  would  be  able  to  replace  their  liberal  outlay  by  the 
unassisted  sale  of  the  book ;  and  he  could  not,  therefore, 
withhold  his  consent  from  a  measure  which  they  thought 
so  important  to  their  security. 

If  he  or  they  had  dreamed  that  the  first  year's  sales 
would  reach  the  enormous  number  of  sixty-five  thousand 
copies, — one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  volumes, — at 


THE  AUTHOR'S  INVOLVEMENT.  225 


the  retail  price  reaching  the  sum  of  three  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars,  and  affording  sixty-five  thousand  dollars 
copyright  to  the  author,  neither  of  them  would  have 
given  a  fig  for  any  thing  that  the  treasury  of  the  nation 
or  the  endorsement  of  Congress  could  do  for  it.  The 
issue  proved  that  the  patronage  withheld  was  no  loss  to 
the  parties  interested :  the  purchase  solicited  would  not 
have  added  a  dollar  to  their  income,  as  its  refusal  did 
not  take  one  from  it. 

A  letter  of  Dr.  Kane's  to  Mr.  Childs  puts  this  affair 
upon  its  right  grounds : — 

"I  had,  like  a  fool,  looked  upon  my  approaching  nar 
rative  as  that  of  a  voyage  of  discovery  undertaken  by 
order  of  the  Government,  and  it  seemed  to  me,  under  the 
circumstances,  open  to  purchase  or  adoption  by  our  Na 
tional  Legislature.  With  this  view  only,  I  had  sanctioned 
an  indirect  connection  with  your  movement,  feeling  that 
it  was  not  a  pecuniary  recompense,  but  a  direct  transac 
tion,  for  which  a  full  equivalent  was  extended  in  the 
work  itself.  But  Mr.  Broadhead's*  letter  implies  that  I 
am  acting  with  you  to  carry  out  a  Congressional  act  of 
pecuniary  reward,  which  is  in  every  respect  repugnant 
to  my  instincts  as  a  gentleman  and  an  officer. 

"  The  late  Expedition  I  have  taught  myself  to  consider 
as  a  matter  of  humanity;  and  I  cannot  forget  that,  what 
ever  it  may  have  done  for  mere  geography,  it  involved 

*  A  Senator,  at  that  time,  from  Pennsylvania,  who  did  not  surprise 
his  acquaintances  by  his  conduct  in  this  affair. 

15 


226  ELISHA.    KENT    KANE. 


the  risk  not  only  of  my  own  life,  but  that  of  my  com 
panions.  It  gives  me  pain  to  look  back  upon  it;  one- 
sixth  of  our  little  party  perished  in  the  field,  and,  of  those 
who  survive,  a  majority  are  mutilated  or  broken  down. 
I  cannot  mingle  with  the  associations  of  this  cruise  any 
thing  so  degrading  as  that  of  a  pecuniary  recompense ; 
and  I  can  only  trust  that  my  hard-earned  labors  will 
establish  their  own  and  best  claim  to  the  sympathy  and 
consideration  of  good  men.  An  honorary  testimonial 
would  have  gratified  me ;  but  even  that  I  now  desire  not 
to  have  mooted. — April  30,  '56." 

"I  beg  of  you  to  leave  unmolested  the  action  of  Con 
gress;  for  this  coupling  of  my  name  with  the  book  will 
interfere  with  any  expression  of  disinterested  feeling  on 
the  part  of  the  Senate,  and  thus  stand  in  the  way  of  that 
which  I  value  far  beyond  either  books  or  money, — viz., 
an  honorary  testimonial  in  recognition  of  our  party,  and 
such  as  has  already  been  extended  to  me  by  England. 
—July  30,  '56." 

Mr.  Dobbin,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  his  annual 
report  of  3d  December,  1855,  speaks  of  the  cruise,  explo 
rations,  and  report,  in  the  following  language : — 

"It  was  well  known  that  Dr.  Kane  left  the  United 
States  in  the  humane  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  in 
June,  1853,  under  orders  from  the  Navy  Department, 
and  at  the  same  time  under  the  patronage  of  distinguished 
philanthropists.  His  report  is  brief,  but  full  of  startling 
incidents  and  thrilling  adventures.  A  more  detailed  and 
elaborate  report  will  ultimately  be  made.  The  discove- 


THE  SECRETARY'S  COMMENDATION.        227 


ries  made  by  this  truly  remarkable  man  and  excellent 
officer  will  be  regarded  as  valuable  contributions  to 
science.  He  advanced  in  those  frozen  regions  far  beyond 
his  intrepid  predecessors,  whose  explorations  had  excited 
such  admiration.  His  residence  for  two  years  with  his 
little  party  far  beyond  the  confines  of  civilization,  with 
a  small  bark  for  his  home,  fastened  with  icy  fetters  that 
defied  all  efforts  for  emancipation,  his  sufferings  from 
intense  cold,  and  agony  from  dreadful  apprehensions  of 
starvation  and  death  for  that  space  of  £ime, — his  miracu 
lous  and  successful  journey  in  open  sledges  over  the  ice 
for  eighty-four  days, — not  merely  excite  our  wonder,  but 
borrow  a  moral  grandeur  from  the  truly  benevolent 
considerations  which  animated  and  nerved  him  for  the 
task. 

"  I  commend  the  results  of  his  explorations  as  worthy 
of  the  attention  and  patronage  of  Congress." 

How  the  attention  and  patronage  of  the  Government 
acted  upon  these  "results"  has  been  seen:  those  of 
the  public  have  been  a  full  compensation.  "  The  sym 
pathy  and  consideration  of  good  men,"  to  which  their 
author  appealed,  have  abundantly  supplied  the  plentiful 
lack  of  inspiration  under  which  the  responsible  function 
aries  of  the  Federal  Government  disposed  of  the  great 
claim. 

Even  the  extra  pay  and  emoluments  made  to  the 
officers  and  men  of  the  like  rating  in  the  Exploring  Expe 
dition  to  the  South  Seas,  and  granted  also  to  the  officers 
and  crew  of  the  De  Haven  Expedition,  have  never  yet 


228  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


been  extended  to  the  poor  fellows  of  the  Kane  party. 
Who  is  responsible  for  this  excuseless  negbct? 

Mr.  Dobbin  handsomely  put  Dr.  Kane  on  full  pay 
while  he  was  engaged  in  writing  his  "  more  detailed  and 
elaborate  report."  This,  indeed,  was  but  a  common 
grace,  dispensed  to  the  historians  of  all  the  national 
expeditions;  but  it  deserves  to  be  especially  acknowledged 
in  a  history  of  relations  to  the  Government  of  which  it 
is  the  single  example  of  a  personal  indulgence. 

Congress,  having  failed  at  its  first  session  after  his 
return  to  appropriate,  by  a  national  recognition,  the 
honors  he  had  won  for  his  country,  had  no  other  oppor 
tunity  for  repairing  the  neglect  till  after  his  death;  then 
a  gold  medal  was  ordered, — of  which,  I  believe,  nothing 
has  been  heard  since  the  passage  of  the  resolution. 

But  resolutions  duly  honoring  the  enterprise  and 
achievements  of  the  Expedition  were  unanimously  passed 
by  the  Legislatures  of  his  native  State,  Pennsylvania, 
and  by  those  of  New  Jersey  and  Maryland.  A  large 
gold  medal  was  voted  by  the  Legislature  of  New  York, 
which  was  not  finished  till  after  his  decease.  The  Royal 
Geographical  Society  of  London  gave  him  their  gold 
medal  and  an  honorary  membership.  The  Queen's 
medal,  designed  for  the  Arctic  explorers  and  searchers 
between  the  years  1818  and  1856,  was  presented;  and  a 
handsome  testimonial,  appropriately  and  specially  exe 
cuted,  was  given  to  him  by  the  British  residents  of  New 
York  City. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

KANE'S  SEA — THE  CHART — SUMMARY  OP  OPERATIONS — LAST  WILL — 

VOYAGE  TO  ENGLAND — HOPING  AGAINST  HOPE — RECEPTION  IN  LON 
DON — LAST  LETTER — DISEASE  OP  THE  HEART — VOYAGE  TO  ST. 
THOMAS — ON  HIS  WAY  TO  CUBA — ATTACK  OP  PARALYSIS — AT  HA 
VANA — LONGING  POR  HOME — LAST  SCENE  OF  ALL — HE  SLEEPETH — 
INTERPRETATION — CHURCH  RELATIONS — FREE-MASONRY — THE  OBSE 
QUIES — LEGISLATIVE  RESOLUTIONS — LEARNED  SOCIETIES — ENGLISH 
TESTIMONIAL. 

THE  narrative  of  the  book  was  finished,  as  we  have 
seen,  before  the  4th  of  July,  the  Appendix  at  the '  close 
of  August,  and  the  work  was  published  in  September. 
The  chart  exhibiting  the  discoveries  of  the  Expedition 
was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  printer,  and  appeared 
in  all  the  copies  issued  before  Dr.  Kane's  departure  for 
England,  without  his  own  name  attached  to  any  of  the 
lands,  channels,  capes,  or  bays  which  it  embraced. 
Colonel  Force,  in  the  exercise  of  an  authority  held  by 
right  of  undisputed  pre-eminence  in  Arctic  science  and 
sound  discretion  in  the  distribution  of  the  honors  won 
in  its  service,  printed  the  words  KANE'S  SEA  with  his 
own  hand  upon  a  copy  of  the  chart,  covering  the  large 

body  of  water  which  lies  between  Smith's  Strait  and 

229 


230  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Kennedy  Channel ;  and  the  publishers,  without  hesita 
tion,  altered  the  plate  accordingly. 

The  discoveries  and  surveys  embraced  in  the  chart 
are,  in  brief: — 

1.  Nine  hundred   and   sixty  miles   of  coast-line  de 
lineated;  which  was  effected  by  two  thousand  miles  of 
travel  on  foot  or  by  the  aid  of  dogs. 

2.  Greenland  traced  to  its  northern  face,  where  it  is 
connected  with  the  farther  north  of  the  opposite  coast  by 
the  Glacier  of  Humboldt. 

3.  The  survey  of  this  great  glacial  mass, — "the  mighty 
crystal   bridge  which   connects   the   two  continents  of 
America  and  Greenland," — sixty  miles  in  length. 

4.  The  discovery  and  delineation  of  the  coast-line  of 
"Washington  Land,  separated  from  the  American  land- 
masses  by  a  channel  of  but  thirty-five  miles  jn  width, 
while  the  Great  Glacier  puts  at  least  sixty  between  it 
and  Greenland,  and  therefore  regarded  as  in  geographical 
continuity  with  the  American  continent. 

5.  The  discovery  and  delineation  of  a  large  tract  of 
land  forming  the  extension  northward  of  the  American 
continent. 

6.  The  discovery  of  a  large  channel  to  the  northwest, 
free  from  ice,  and  leading  into  an  open  and  expanding 
area  equally  free, — the  whole  embracing  an  iceless  area 
of  four  thousand  two  hundred  miles. 

Of  these  surveys  he  speaks  in  this  confident  language, 
which  from  him  is  a  sufficient  assurance  that  they  will 
not  disappoint  the  utmost  reliance  which  they  invite : — 


HIS   WILL.  231 


"I  may  be  satisfied  now  with  our  projection  of  the  Green 
land  coast.  The  different  localities  to  the  south  have 
been  referred  to  the  position  of  our  winter  harbor,  and 
this  has  been  definitely  fixed  by  the  labors  of  Mr.  Sontag, 
our  astronomer.  We  have  therefore  not  only  a  reliable 
base,  but  a  set  of  primary  triangulations  which,  though 
limited,  may  support  the  minor  field-work  of  our  sextants." 

The  unrelenting  ice  that  forms  the  crystal  link  between 
the  known  and  the  unknown  Northern  seas,  thus  defi 
nitely  measured  and  delineated,  bears  the  name  of  its 
conqueror.  It  is  poetically  appropriate;  and  the  spon 
taneous  consent  of  the  world  awards  it. 

He  sailed  for  England,  "in  search  of  his  lost  blessing," 
in  the  steamer  Baltic,  on  the  10th  of  October,  1856, 
accompanied  by  the  faithful  Morton,  who  had  gone  with 
him  to  the  world's  end,  and  was  now  to  go  with  him  to 
the  end  of  his  life. 

Immediately  before  leaving  New  York,  he  made  his 
will.  He  was  at  the  time  entirely  unaware  of  the  large 
pecuniary  results  which  his  last  work  was  to  yield  to  its 
author.  His  expenditure  for  his  current  support,  and  in 
his  customary  liberal  givings  to  the  objects  of  his  charity 
and  kindness,  left  him  nothing  which  may  be  very  well 
called  an  estate ;  and  he  knew  not  at  the  time  that  he  had 
certainly  much  of  value  to  bequeath,  for  he  had  antici 
pated  the  receipts  which  he  might  confidently  rely  upon, 
and  only  felt  assured  that  the  expenses  of  his  proposed 
trip  to  Europe  were  handsomely  provided  for,  and  that 
he  was  not  in  danger  of  debt. 


232  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


He  never  in  his  life  had  been  restricted  in  funds  for 
his  ordinary  or  necessary  uses,  and  only  felt  their  limit 
in  his  ardor  for  the  great  undertakings  of  his  generous 
ambition  and  the  indulgence  of  a  large-hearted  muni 
ficence. 

It  is  because  the  world  will  be  glad  to  know  that 
poverty  was  not  among  his  heavy  burdens  that  this  piece 
of  very  private  history  is  given  to  it. 

On  the  voyage  to  Liverpool  an  ominous  change  in 
his  constitutional  habit  was  manifested :  he  was  not  sea 
sick.  This  strange  exemption  is  sadly  interpreted  to 
us,  by  the  issue,  to  indicate  the  strength  of  disease  over 
mastering  his  idiosyncrasy.  But  the  menacing  symptoms 
of  his  malady  were  perhaps  plain  enough  to  any  well- 
informed  judgment  not  controlled  by  affection  and  its 
hopefulness.  His  wonderful  tenacity  of  life — a  sort  of 
heroic  vitality  of  his  system — had  so  often  restored  him 
from  hopeless  illnesses,  that  his  family,  who  knew  his 
case  best,  entertained  solacing  expectations  of  benefit 
from  the  voyage. 

His  father,  writing  to  Mr.  Grinnell  on  the  1st  of  De 
cember,  after  the  receipt  of  alarming  news  from  London, 


"I  need  not  say  to  you  how  heartfully  I  share  your 
fears,  and  how  grateful  we  all  are  for  Mrs.  GrmneH's 
sympathies  and  your  own.  But — I  hardly  know  why 
it  should  be  so — I  cannot  rid  myself  of  a  confidence  that 
our  son  will  be  spared  to  us.  I  have  waited  in  suspense 
for  weeks,  when  the  army  surgeon's  letter  had  assured 


HOPING  AGAINST    HOPE.  233 


me  that  he  must  die  before  morning  of  his  wounds  in 
Mexico.  I  have  heard  of  him  prostrate  and  hopeless 
with  the  fever  of  the  African  coast,  and,  before  that, 
with  the  plague ;  I  have  twice  bidden  him  a  last  good 
bye,  when  he  sailed  upon  his  cruises  for  the  Arctic;  and 
but  little  more  than  a  year  ago,  when  he  was  fairly  out 
of  time,  I  gave  him  almost  up  for  ten  days  before  he 
reached  New  York.  And  now  I  cannot  realize  that  so 
noble  a  spirit,  so  well  tried  in  suffering  and  peril,  so  full 
of  love  and  fortitude  and  daring,  is  to  be  the  victim  of 
ordinary  disease.  I  cannot  but  hope,  and  trust  even,  that 
the  same  wise  and  beneficent  Providence  that  has 
shielded  him  so  often  and  so  manifestly  has  other  good 
work  for  him  to  do  among  his  fellow-men." 

Providence  has  other  spheres  of  service  for  the  capable ; 
and  a  good  man's  work  goes  on  in  this  one  after  his 
death,  as  the  seed  grows  while  the  husbandman  sleepeth ; 
else  this  fond  trust  would  have  been  fulfilled  in  the  form 
which  our  human  hearts  craved. 

Dr.  Kane  himself  was  far  from  sanguine  of  his 
recovery ;  yet,  after  his  manner  of  controlling  his  appre 
hensions  without  betraying  the  effort,  he  seemed  to 
enjoy  the  voyage.  Dr.  Betton,  of  German  town,  who  was 
an  old  acquaintance,  and  now  his  fellow-passenger  in  the 
Baltic,  says  that,  "when  his  strength  would  permit,  he 
seemed  to  rise  above  his  maladies  and  enjoy  all  around 
him,  contributing  his  share  to  the  general  happiness." 
Even  the  watchful  and  well-schooled  Morton  was  half 


234  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


deceived  by  the  well-supported  aspect  of  cheerfulness 
habitually  worn  by  his  friend. 

They  reached  Liverpool  on  the  24th,  and  after  three 
days  went  to  London.  Of  his  brief  stay  in  the  city, 
(about  eight  days,)  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison,  President 
of  the  Koyal  Geographical  Society,  says : — "  It  was  a 
subject  of  much  regret  to  me  that  when  Dr.  Kane  visited 
England  the  metropolis  (as  is  usual  at  that  season)  was 
not  inhabited  by  many  of  the  persons  who  most  valued 
his  character,  and  that  none  of  those  attentions  could 
then  be  paid  to  him  which,  had  his  stay  been  prolonged, 
would  doubtless  have  .been  showered  upon  him,  from  the 
sovereign  downwards.  But,  alas !  the  hand  of  death 
was  already  upon  him ;  and,  when  I  had  the  honor  of  an 
interview,  I  at  once  saw  that  his  eagle  eye  beamed  forth 
from  a  wasted  and  all  but  expiring  body. 

"  As  geographers,  we  were  not,  however,  remiss  in  our 
endeavors  to  honor  him ;  and,  although  his  malady  pre 
vented  his  attendance  at  our  apartments  to  receive  our 
heartiest  welcome,  I  then  proposed  that  resolution  expres 
sive  of  our  admiration  of  his  conduct  which  you  passed 
with  acclamation,  and  which  was  communicated  to  him 
personally  by  our  lamented  President,  Admiral  Beechey." 

While  in  the  city  he  visited  the  office  of  the  Admi 
ralty  upon  invitation,  and  called  once  or  twice  upon 
Lady  Franklin  and  Mrs.  Sabine ;  but  the  fogs  of  London, 
so  thick  at  mid-day  that  the  street-lamps  were  invisible 
and  flambeaus  were  carried  before  the  carriages,  over- 


LAST    LETTER.  235 


came  him :  he  grew  worse  rapidly.  Upon  the  kind  and 
hospitable  invitation  of  Mr.  Cross,  he  removed  to  his  resi 
dence  in  Camberwell,  about  four  miles  distant  from  the 
Thames,  where  he  remained  from  the  2d  till  the  17th 
of  November,  recovering  a  little  in  its  better  air,  but 
only  to  the  extent  that  enabled  him  to  dine  with  the 
family,  and  requiring  to  be  almost  carried  to  the  table. 

On  the  15th  he  wrote  the  letter  of  latest  date  from  his 
hand  which  I  have  seen.  It  is  addressed  to  his  friend 
and  frequent  medical  adviser,  Dr.  S.  W.  Mitchell,  of 
Philadelphia : — 

"  MY  DEAR  FRIEND  WEIR  : — Perhaps  it  would  comfort 
our  dear  people  at  Fern  Rock*  if  you  would  mention 
that  I  have  seen  and  consulted  Dr.  Watson  with  Sir 
Henry  Holland.  The  former  ausculted  my  lungs  and 
pronounced  against  any  vice  other  than  the  cold  on  the 
chest  which  now  so  depresses  me.  My  inability  to  throw 
it  off  is  explained  by  my  extreme  want  of  power  and  this 
wretched  land  of  fogs. 

"  They  all  urge  the  '  exaltation'  of  vital  function  to  be 
expected  from  a  warmer  climate. 

"  Talk  over  this,  and  add  your  excellent  father  to  the 
consultation.  You  see  the  effort  with  which  I  write  this 
note  :  I  wish  you  could  see  the  overflowing  kind  feelings 
to  you  and  yours  with  which  I  close  it. 

"  Your  friend, 

"  E.  K.  KANE. 

"LONDON,  November  15,  1856." 

*  His  father's  residence  near  Philadelphia. 


236  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


The  opinion  of  Dr.  Watson,  formed  probably  upon  a 
thorough  examination,  is  supported  by  that  of  Dr. 
Mitchell,  which,  however,  he  states  to  be  the  result  of 
a  single  exploration,  and  that  a  rather  slight  one,  or  at 
least  not  sufficient  to  warrant  a  confident  diagnosis.  " 

But  the  history  of  the  case,  running  through  a  period 
of  twenty  years,  without  depending  upon  the  results  of 
auscultation,  is  perhaps  sufficient  to  confirm  this  opinion. 

It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  exercise  of  the  most 
violent  kind,  under  the  most  unfriendly  circumstances, 
would  be  practicable,  much  less  remedial,  in  a  case  of 
organic  disease  of  the  heart  so  considerable  as  it  must 
have  been  to  account  for  all  the  appearances. 

The  opinion  of  Dr.  Hayes  seems  to  offer  a  theory  that 
better  unites  and  explains  the  symptoms  manifested 
throughout  the  long  continuance  of  the  case.  It  consists 
well  enough  with  an  inordinate  volume  of  the  organ  and 
its  frequent  rheumatic  attacks,  while  it  denies  any  struc 
tural  derangement  greater  or  other  than  frequent  inflam 
mation  supposes ;  and  it  accounts,  besides,  for  their  inter 
mitting  character  and  for  the  symptoms — bellows-sound, 
palpitation,  and  difficult  respiration — by  ascribing  the 
paroxysms  to  serous  effusion  in  the  pericardium,  or  sack 
which  loosely  invests  the  heart ;  oppressing  and  disturb 
ing  its  action  until,  by  absorption,  or  whatever  process 
nature  employs  in  such  exigencies  for  working  her  own 
cures,  the  fluid  was  removed. 

The  facts  of  the  case  point  in  this  direction : — Quiet 
increased,  and  active  exertion  decreased,  his  liability  to 


DISEASE    OF    THE    HEART.  237 


palpitation  and  dyspnoea.  The  surgeon  of  the  "Ad 
vance"  was  called  frequently  during  the  winter  of 
1853-54  to  his  bedside,  to  find  him  suffering  with  these 
symptoms  without  any  apparent  cause  for  their  occur 
rence. 

These  attacks  sometimes  happened  when  he  had  been 
for  hours  lying  in  his  bunk;  and  they  were  often  so 
violent  that  he  had  to  be  propped  up  with  pillows,  and 
so  protracted  that  they  threatened  a  fatal  issue.  But 
the  next  day  he  would  be  moving  about  with  his  accus 
tomed  alacrity,  not  hesitating  to  start  off  alone  upon  a 
two  hours'  walk  on  the  ice.  On  his  return  there  would 
be  no  reappearance  of  the  symptoms ;  and  never,  at  any 
time,  did  he  suffer  from  them  by  any  excitement  or 
exertion,  however  violent.  The  ordinary  rules  for  the 
management  of  a  patient  laboring  under  organic  disease 
of  the  heart  were  not  only  unsuited  to  his  case,  but  posi 
tively  injurious. 

His  experience  of  these  facts  clearly  warranted  the 
manner  of  life  to  which  his  impulses  prompted  him,  and 
the  maxim  "do  or  die"  was  with  him  a  physical  as  well 
as  a  moral  necessity. 

Nervous  excitability  was  a  marked  character  of  his 
temperament,  and  may  have  had  a  large  share  in  his 
chronic  ailments,  as  it  was  the  form  of  their  final  and 
fatal  exhibition ;  but  the  opinion  of  his  case  which 
ascribes  his  cardiac  troubles  and  their  symptoms  to 
serous  effusion,  occurring  either  independently,  or  as  a 
result  and  resolution  of  a  rheumatic  affection  of  the 


238  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


heart,  looks  like  the  better  explanation  of  the  anomalous 
symptoms  so  often  exhibited. 

On  arriving  in  London,  Dr.  Kane  had  thought  at  one 
time  of  going  to  Sicily,  at  another  to  the  South  of  France ; 
but  Cuba  was  determined  upon,  as  equally  promising, 
and  nearer  home  in  the  event  of  requiring  its  consola 
tions  under  disappointed  hopes  of  recovery.  On  the  17th 
of  November  he  left  the  hospitable  mansion  of  Mr.  Cross, 
and  went  down  by  rail  to  Southampton.  Mr.  Cornelius 
Grinnell  and  Mr.  Wood,  both  of  New  York,  came  down 
from  London  for  the  purpose,  and  saw  him  on  board  the 
Oronoco,  bound  for  St.  Thomas,  which  he  reached  on 
the  2d  of  December.  He  remained  there,  waiting  for  a 
passage  to  Cuba,  until  the  20th. 

Again  on  this  voyage  he  escaped  his  usual  sea-sickness. 
But  he  suffered  acutely  from  rheumatism  in  his  limbs, 
shifting  into  every  part  of  his  body.  At  St.  Thomas  he 
was  hospitably  entertained  by  Mr.  Swift.  He  was  able 
to  walk  from  room  to  room  in  the  house,  and  once  drove 
out  with  his  kind  host.  He  had  fever  here  nearly  every 
day,  and  suffered  greatly  from  night-sweats ;  but,  upon 
the  whole,  he  was  considerably  improved  by  his  stay  on 
the  island,  and  this  advantage  of  the  climate  determined 
him  finally  to  continue  his  journey  to  Cuba.  He  had 
provided  himself  with  woollens  before  he  left  England, 
under  the  feeling  that  he  might  determine  to  go  direct 
from  St.  Thomas  to  the  United  States,  risking  the  cold 
ness  of  the  coast  to  get  home,  and  there  abide  the 
issue. 


ATTACK    OF    PARALYSIS.  239 


On  the  20th,  in  the  evening,  he  sailed  for  Havana.  It 
was  Blowing  a  half  gale  at  the  time,  and  the  sea  was 
boisterous.  The  next  day  he  complained  of  nausea  after 
breakfasting.  In  the  afternoon  he  slept,  and  Morton 
engaged  himself  in  "  overhauling  their  luggage."  While 
thus  employed,  the  doctor  waked  and  sat  up,  gazing  at 
him  for  a  moment  or  two,  then  lay  down  again,  and 
called  "  Morton,"  in  a  thick  voice.  He  moaned  as  in 
great  pain,  and  said  "yes"  when  he  was  asked  if  the 
ship's  physician  should  be  called.  When  he  came,  the 
doctor  said  to  him,  "Do  give  me  anodyne."  A  few 
minutes  after,  when  they  were  alone,  Morton  said  to  him, 
"  What  is  the  matter  ?  you  scare  me,  sir."  He  replied, 
"  You  may  well  be  scared,  poor  fellow :  you  will  not  have 
me  to  trouble  you  long." 

.  About  twenty  minutes  after  saying  this,  Morton  dis 
covered  that  his  right  arm  and  leg  were  paralyzed.  He 
asked  him  what  this  meant ;  but  the  tongue  would  not 
do  its  office.  He  was,  however,  conscious,  and  only  inca 
pable  of  vocal  utterance.  By  the  24th  he  had  revived 
considerably ;  he  was  able  to  sit  up  with  support,  and 
looked  out  with  interest  upon  the  shore  of  Cuba,  which 
was  now  in  sight. 

On  the  25th,  the  vessel  landed  at  Havana,  where  he 
was  received  by  his  brother  Thomas,  who  had  gone  out 
to  meet  him  there  as  soon  as  the  family  were  advised 
of  his  destination.  The  next  day  he  went  ashore,  and 
on  the  29th  was  reported  as  considerably  improved, — 
able  to  use  the  paralyzed  leg  as  well  as  the  other;  but 


240  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


the  arm  remained  powerless,  and  utterance  imperfect, 
yet  sufficing  for  the  simple  communication  of  his 
wants. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  his  mother  and  his  brother 
John  left  New  York  for  Havana.  They  arrived  on  the 
12th  or  13th.  His  mother,  having  been  exposed  to  the 
contagion  of  smallpox  immediately  before  leaving  home, 
abstained  from  seeing  him  for  four  or  five  days,  under 
fear  of  communicating  the  disease ;  but  after  that  time 
he  had  her,  his  two  brothers,  and  Mr.  Morton  in  con 
stant  attendance  upon  him  to  the  end. 

His  anxiety  to  get  home  was,  however,  but  little 
abated.  It  had  all  the  urgency  and  impatience  of  a  dying 
man's  longings.  He  was  quite  able  to  make  the  journey, 
he  could  stand  while  he  was  dressed,  could  walk  with 
but  little  support  to  a  chair;  he  could  ride  out  if  the 
day  were  but  favorable,  and  they  need  have  no  fears 
for  him ! 

He  was  a  child  again  in  these  importunings.  He  had 
come  back  from  the  long  voyage  of  a  lifetime  to  his 
mother's  knee,  with  all  the  pretty  little  ways  and  trivial 
troubles  of  the  nursery.  Heroism  had  not  hardened 
him ;  the  world  had  not  weaned  him  from  his  heart's 
dependency  upon  home  affections;  and  his  very  inquiet 
udes  were  disguised  pleasures :  they  veiled  while  they 
indulged  his  overflowing  fondness. 

Every  day — two  or  three  times  every  day — he  must 
hear  the  words  of  life  from  the  lips  that  had  taught  his 
to  lisp  his  infant  prayer;  and,  if  Morton's  occupations 


LAST    SCENE   OF   ALL.  241 


interrupted  her,  "Go  on,  mother:  never  mind  Morton/' 
expressed  his  interest  and  its  impatience. 

A  month  by  the  calendar — an  age  to  the  watchers — 
wore  away  in  this  manner,  and  they  were  ready  to  sail ; 
but  the  weather  was  unfavorable,  and  the  journey  was 
postponed  till  the  next  steamer-day.  That  next  steamer 
brought  him — brought  his  corpse — to  his  country.  He 
had  left  it  for  "  that  undiscovered  country  from  whose 
bourn  no  traveller  returns." 

On  the  10th  of  February,  suddenly  and  without  warn 
ing,  he  was  seized  with  "apoplexy," — inaccurately 
described,  for  he  was  not  unconscious  nor  insensible; 
only  paralyzed,  with  the  power  of  emotional  expression 
left,  the  power  to  indicate  his  sympathies,  sufferings,  and 
wants. 

The  tenacious  vitality  of  his  frame  held  him  to  earth 
till  the  16th,*  and  then  released  him  so  gently  that  the 
Bible-reading  went  on  for  some  minutes  after  the  other 
watchers  had  been  made  aware  of  his  departure. 

When  death  invaded  the  little  family  at  Bethany  and 
struck  down  the  brother,  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples, 
"Our  friend  sleepeth."  They  answered,  not  knowing 
what  they  said,  "  If  he  sleep,  he  shall  do  well."  They 
must  be  told  in  the  language  of  their  own  blindness, 
plainly,  "  He  is  dead."  How  hard  it  is  for  mortal  man 
to  understand  the  proper  language  of  immortality !  And 
the  sister  (not  Mary,  who  had  loved  herself  into  the 


*  16th  of  February,  1857.     He  was  born  2d  February,  1820. 
16 


242  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


secret  of  the  Savior's  life  long  before  his  disciples  divined 
it,  but  Martha,  the  worldling)  hoped  only  that  her 
brother  should  rise  again  in  the  resurrection  of  the  last 
day.  Jesus  said  unto  her,  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and 
the  life;  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall 
never  die.  Believest  thou  this  ?" 

Yet  at  the  grave  of  his  friend  He  wept !  Neither  Faith 
nor  Hope  forbids  the  griefs  of  Love  bereaved.  It  is  their 
office  to  heal,  not  to  harden,  the  heart.  They  sit  by  the 
jus1>opened  tomb,  as  Mary  saw  two  angels  in  white,  the 
one  at  the  head,  the  other  at  the  feet,  to  answer  the 
plaints  of  grief-blinded  affection.  It  is  sown  in  cor 
ruption. — It  is  raised  in  incorruption  !  It  is  sown  in  dis 
honor. — It  is  raised  in  glory!  It  is  sown  in  weakness. — 
It  is  raised  in  power!  It  is  sown  a  natural  body. — It  is 
raised  a  spiritual  body! 

Here  the  real  meets  the  actual,  the  true  confronts  the 
apparent,  and  Life  answers  the  argument  of  Death. 

One  of  the  incidents  of  these  last  days  of  lingering  in 
life  has  been  reported  and  received  as  an  act  of  Christian 
forgiveness  for  wrongs  he  had  suffered  and  was  still 
suffering  in  their  consequences.  I  owe  it  to  his  memory 
to  record  here  my  own  apprehension  of  it. 

He  had  settled  that  account  two  years  before,  forgiving 
then  what  was  to  be  forgiven,  and  accepting  what  was  to 
be  borne  without  blame  to  the  party  offending. 

It  was  the  indignation  and  threatened  revenges  of  his 
attendants  that  wakened  his  noble  heart  with  the  pang 
which  attested  his  consciousness,  clearness  of  appre- 


CHURCH    RELATIONS.  243 


hension,  and  persistency  of  purpose  to  keep  the  peace 
he  had  made.  And,  when  his  best-loved  and  nearest 
cried  out,  "Elisha,  I  will  forgive  them,"  his  smile  of 
satisfaction  was  not  the  clearance  of  his  own  heart  of  a 
grievance,  but  the  gladness  of  knowing  now  that  the 
hearts  where  his  image  must  rest  had  been  disburdened 
of  an  incongruous  feeling. 

He  settled  a  similar  trouble  with  me,  for  the  same 
cause,  long  before ;  and,  if  I  know  any  thing  assuringly, 
I  know  that  he  did  not  trail  with  him  to  his  death-bed  a 
grievance  which  he  had  met  and  disposed  of  in  the  spirit 
of  manly  justice  and  Christian  generosity  when  he  first 
encountered  it. 

The  history  of  these  last  days  is  given  here  with 
careful  reference  to  its  proper  effect.  Nothing  is  strained 
in  statement  or  colored  in  description  for  any  purpose 
or  to  any  end.  And  it  is  only  necessary  now  to  add  that 
no  clergyman  of  any  denomination  visited  him  at  Havana, 
and  that  he  never  held  membership  in  any  church  other 
than  that  by  birthright  and  baptism,  in  his  infancy,  in 
the  congregation  to  which  his  parents  belong, — the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia. 

It  is  proper  also  to  state  that  immediately  after  his 
return  from  his  last  Arctic  voyage  he  requested  his 
pastor,  (as  he  once  called  him,)  Rev.  C.  W.  Shields,  to 
make  public  thanksgiving  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
Expeditionists  from  the  perils  of  their  cruise,  attended 
the  service,  and  warmly  thanked  the  pastor  for  perform 


ing  it. 


244  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


He  had  requested  public  prayer  to  be  made  in  one  of 
the  churches  in  New  York  for  the  well-being  of  the  crew 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  enterprise,  before  he  set  out. 
He  was  prayed  for  by  name  in  one  at  least  of  the  Catholic 
churches  of  his  native  city  during  his  absence ;  and  he 
and  his  party  may  have  been  the  object  of  other  congre 
gational  supplication  and  thanksgiving  elsewhere. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  he  valued  at  its  highest  worth 
the  devotional  solicitude  of  all  men  for  his  welfare  who 
gave  it  in  the  spirit  which  makes  prayer  acceptable  to 
God  and  helpful  to  man. 

In  the  summer  of  1852  he  entered  the  Franklin  Lodge 
of  Free  Masons  in  Philadelphia. 

What  Masonry  meant  to  him  and  he  meant  by  it  is 
apparent  from  an  address,  evidently  extemporized,  on 
the  night  before  he  left  New  York  upon  his  last  Arctic 
voyage.  The  occasion  was  a  special  one,  having  re 
ference  to  his  enterprise  and  search  for  Sir  John 
Franklin,  who  was  a  brother  Mason.  The  whole  speech 
is  given  in  the  appendix  of  this  volume;  but  wre  call 
attention  to  an  extract,  now  that  we  are  on  the  subject 
of  his  religious  and  societary  connections,  for  the  illus 
tration  it  affords  of  his  character  in  this  aspect. 

Answering  the  address  from  the  Grand  Master,  he 


"With  regard  to  your  remarks  directly  associated 
with  my  name,  I  should  be  embarrassed  could  I  not 
refuse  to  believe  them  addressed  to  me  in  any  other 
capacity  than  that  of  the  representative  of  a  cause 


FREE-MASONRY.  245 


which,  perhaps,  may  claim  to  associate  Christian  charity 
with  American  enterprise, — the  attempt  to  save  a  gal 
lant  officer  and  his  fellows  from  a  dreadful  death,  with 
out  inquiring  whether  he  or  they  and  ourselves  are 
citizens  of  the  same  or  of  another  race,  or  clime,  or 
nation. 

"  Worshipful,  I  have  heard  upon  this  floor  to-night 
our  party  characterized  as  a  Masonic  expedition.  And 
is  it  not  this  ?  And  is  its  work  not  substantial  Masonry? 
Are  you,  sir,  or  you,  brothers,  here,  that  are  gathered 
around  me, — are  we  blindly  attached  to  this  or  that 
ritual  of  this  or  that  form  or  order  of  the  Masonic  insti 
tution  ?  Say,  is  it  not  rather  that  we  see  reflected  in 
Free  Masonry  the  cause  of  free  brotherhood  throughout 
the  world,  and  that  our  signs  and  our  symbols,  our  tokens, 
legends,  and  passwords,  are  only  honorable  in  our  eyes, 
and  honored  because  they  are  a  language  in  which 
affection  can  securely  speak  to  sympathy,  and  humanity 
safely  join  hands  with  honor. 

"  Brothers,  we  are  called  in  our  day,  perhaps,  to  make 
Masonry  what  it  should  be, — not  a  sectarian  society,  to 
garb,  or  rank,  or  enroll  men,  to  separate  them  from  their 
fellows,  but  a  bond  to  unite  the  good  and  true  in  a  com 
mon  union  for  the  common  defence  and  welfare  of  all 
who  are  good  and  true  men." 

To  the  "  Obsequies  of  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,"  pre 
pared  for  publication  by  the  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Chandler, 
and  appended  to  this  narrative,  I  am  glad  to  refer  for  all 
that  can  be  done  to  report  the  tribute  of  sorrow  paid  by 


246  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


his  country  to  his  remains  through  their  long  journey 
to  their  final  resting-place. 

The  recollection  of  my  readers  needs  not  to  be  re 
freshed  :  they  were  witnesses,  they  were  the  mourners,  of 
that  national  procession ;  and  they  have  it  by  heart, 
richer,  fresher,  better  than  my  pen  could  portray  it. 

The  newspapers  and  journals  of  the  day  echoed  the 
general  mourning  of  the  public;  the  pulpits  responded 
to  the  common  feeling  of  the  worshippers ;  and  the  Le 
gislatures  of  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
Ohio,  New  Jersey,  and  other  States,  adopted  resolutions 
expressive  of  the  national  feeling  which  honored  his  life 
and  mourned  his  death.  The  flags  of  the  capitols  were 
ordered  at  half-mast;  and  the  municipal  governments  of 
all  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union  united  in  corre 
sponding  testimonies  of  respect. 

The  Philosophical  Society  of  Pennsylvania  ordered 
his  portrait  to  be  painted  for  their  hall,  and  appointed 
Professor  A.  Dallas  Bache,  one  of  their  Vice-Presidents, 
to  prepare  #  memoir  for  publication.  The  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  learned 
societies  of  the  Union  generally,  joined  in  their  several 
appropriate  ways  in  commemorating  his  worth  and 
services.  Dr.  Hawks,  President  of  the  Geographical 
Society  of  New  York,  pronounced  a  eulogy  upon  him 
before  that  body ;  and  the  venerable  Dr.  Francis  paid  a 
similar  tribute  in  behalf  of  the  Medical  Society  of  that 
city.  The  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London, 
through  their  President,  gave  the  heartiest  expression 


ENGLISH     TESTIMONIAL.  247 


of  their  appreciation  of  him  as  a  man  and  an  explorer. 
A  page  from  this  eulogy  must  conclude — without  in  any 
adequate  degree  completing — the  summary  of  the  tributes 
laid  upon  his  tomb.  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison  closes  his 
review  of  the  life  and  achievements  of  their  medallist 
and  honorary  member  thus : — 

" '  The  long  procession  of  mourners,  (as  it  is  written 
in  the  Philadelphia  Evening  Journal  of  March  12,)  the 
crowded  yet  silent  streets  through  which  they  move,  the 
roll  of  muffled  drums,  the  booming  of  minute-guns,  the 
tolling  of  passing  bells,  the  craped  flags  at  half-mast,  and 
all  the  solemn  pageantry  of  the  scene,  proclaim  that  it  is 
no  ordinary  occasion  which  has  called  forth  these  im 
pressive  demonstrations  of  public  respect.' 

"Agreeing  entirely  with  this  eloquent  writer,  that  few 
men  have  ever  lived  who  have  earned  a  better  title  to 
the  admiration  of  his  race,  and  also  warmly  commend 
ing  to  your  notice  the  sentiment  proceeding  from  a  great 
commercial  city  of  our  kinsmen,  '  that  we  are  not  to  look 
to  the  mere  utilitarian  value  of  Dr.  Kane's  labors  and 
adventures  for  the  claim  to  that  bright  and  unfading 
glory  which  must  ever  surround  his  name,'  let  me  say 
that,  by  re-echoing  the  voice  of  America  on  this  occa 
sion,  England  can  best  cherish  the  memory  of  one  who 
dared  and  did  so  much  to  rescue  her  lost  navigators. 

"  Having  thus  imperfectly  glanced  at  the  feats  which 
our  deceased  medallist  accomplished  in  the  short  life 
time  of  thirty-seven  years,  under  the  impulses  of  hu 
manity  and  science,  I  cannot  better  sum  up  his  virtues 


248  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


than  in  the  words  of  the  divine*  who  preached  the 
funeral  sermon  over  his  bier.  'He  has  traversed  the 
planet  in  its  most  inaccessible  places,  has  gathered  here 
and  there  a  laurel  from  every  walk  of  physical  research 
in  which  he  strayed,  has  gone  into  the  thick  of  perilous 
adventure,  abstracting  in  the  spirit  of  philosophy  yet 
seeing  in  the  spirit  of  poesy,  has  returned  to  invest  the 
very  story  of  his  escape  with  the  charms  of  literature 
and  art,  and,  dying  at  length  in  the  morning  of  his  fame, 
is  now  lamented  with  mingled  affection  and  pride  by  his 
country  and  the  world.' " 

*Kev.  C.W.  Shields. 


TOMB     OF     DR.     KANE, 
In  Laurel  Hill  f'fmftery,  nf.ar  Philadelphia. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PERSONAL  DESCRIPTION — SOCIAL  BEARING SPIRIT-POWER — PORTRAITS 

— HYPERTROPHY — KINDNESS  FOR  ANIMALS — GUN-MURDER — DOG- 
PEOPLE — MAN  AND  BEAST — GODFREY — NORTH  BRITISH  REVIEW — 

WITHDRAWING    PARTY — MANNERS    AND     CUSTOMS — TOODLA-MIK 

TASTES  AND  ANTIPATHIES — NOVELS  AND  PLAYS — PROSE-POETRY 
— MENTAL  METHOD — MEDICAL  SKEPTICISM — BENEFITS  OF  THE  STUDY 
— GOVERNING-POWER — THE  OUTSIDE  PASSAGE — ROUTINE  AND  OR 
GANIZATION — ESQUIMAUX  ALLIES — FONDNESS  FOR  CHILDREN — JUS 
TICE  TO  SUBORDINATES — ALL  ELSE  SUBMITTED — THE  END. 

DR.  KANE  was  five  feet  six  inches  in  height:  in  his 
best  health  he  weighed  about  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  pounds.  He  had  a  fair  complexion,  with  soft  brown 
hair.  His  eyes  were  dark  gray,  with  a  wild-bird  light  in 
them  when  his  intellect  and  feelings  were  in  genial 
flow;  when  they  were  in  the  torrent-tide  of  enraptured 
action,  the  light  beamed  from  them  like  the  flashing  of 
scimetars,  and  in  impassioned  movement  they  glared 
frightfully.  All  these  phases  might  be  displayed  within 
the  selfsame  hour  that  he  had  laid  his  head  upon  his 
sister's  knee,  and  in  a  cooing  voice,  soft  as  the  music  of 
feeling  could  make  it,  said,  "  Pet  me,«Bessie ;  love  me, 

darling." 

249 


250  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


In  company,  when  the  talk  ran  glib  and  everybody 
would  be  heard,  he  was  silent,  but  tense  and  elastic  as 
a  steel-spring  under  pressure.  He  had  a  way  of  looking 
attentive,  docile,  and  interested  as  a  child's  fresh  wonder; 
but  no  one  would  mistake  the  expression  for  the  admi 
ration  of  inexperience  or  incapacity;  yet  it  cheated 
many  a  talker  into  a  self-complaisance  that  lost  him  his 
opportunity  of  learning  something  of  the  man  which  he 
wanted  to  know.  This  was  the  thing  in  his  demeanor 
which  people  call  his  reserve :  the  reserve  of  absorbed 
attentiveness  he  had;  but  there  was  nothing  of  strained 
reticence  in  his  manner. 

An  Irishman  would  not  think  him  a  humorist,  nor 
would  a  Frenchman  call  him  a  wit;  a  Yankee  would 
give  him  a  high  character  for  both ;  an  Englishman  would 
call  him  clever, — leaving  you  to  guess  what  that  might 
mean ;  and  almost  anybody  who  met  him  in  the  intervals 
given  to  easy  intercourse  would  say  that  he  was  a 
delightful  social  companion. 

He  was  shy  of  the  probe :  he  shrank  like  a  sensitive- 
plant  from  any  rude  ransacking  of  his  sanctuary  of 
feeling  and  opinion ;  but  his  caution  was  not  cowardly. 
He  only  would  not  be  nipped;  and  he  had  skill  enough 
among  the  hummocks  and  slush  of  society  to  find  his 
own  lead  and  keep  an  even  keel.  He  was  a  gentleman, 
and  had  absolute  possession  of  himself. 

Idle  curiosity  never  made  any  thing  of  him,  and  he  did 
nothing  at  gossip ;  but  inquiry  with  an  aim  was  never 
disappointed.  Sitting  one  day  at  his  father's  table,  after 


SPIRIT-POWER.  251 


his  return  from  his  last  Expedition,  some  one  closed  the 
narrative  of  a  dangerous  adventure  with  the  words,  "  I 
never  encountered  any  thing  so  awful  in  my  life."  The 
doctor  had  been  for  an  hour  silently  attentive  to  all  that 
was  said.  At  this  point  one  of  the  guests  turned  to 
him  and  asked,  "  What  is  the  most  awful  thing  that  you 
ever  experienced  ?"  His  face  took  a  devotionally  deep 
expression ;  and  he  answered,  "  The  silence  of  the  Arctic 
night!" 

His  answer  may  pass  for  sentiment,  poetry,  or  worship, 
as  you  would  receive  it.  His  company  read  it  to  their 
own  several  depths,  and  all  so  far  aright ;  for  his 
character  lay  in  him  in  concentric  rings,  all  concurring 
and  all  according,  and  you  could  have  it  in  your  own 
measure. 

A  vein  was  opened  here;  and  after  dinner,  alone  with 
him,  I  asked  him  for  the  best-proved  instance  that  he 
knew  of  the  soul's  power  over  the  body, — an  instance 
that  might  push  the  hard-baked  philosophy  of  material 
ism  to  the  consciousness  of  its  own  idiocy.  He  paused 
a  moment  upon  my  question,  as  if  to  feel  how  it  was  put, 
and  then  answered,  as  with  a  spring,  "  The  soul  can  lift 
the  body  out  of  its  boots,  sir.  When  our  captain  was 
dying, — I  say  dying :  I  have  seen  scurvy  enough  to  know, 
— every  old  scar  in  his  body  was  a  running  ulcer.  If 
conscience  festers  under  its  wounds  correspondingly,  hell 
is  not  hard  to  understand.  I  never  saw  a  case  so  bad 
that  either  lived  or  died.  Men  die  of  it  usually  long 
before  they  are  as  ill  as  he  was.  There  was  trouble 


252  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


aboard :  there  might  be  mutiny.  So  soon  as  the  breath 
was  out  of  his  body  we  might  be  at  each  others'  throats. 
I  felt  that  he  owed  even  the  repose  of  dying  to  the  ser 
vice.  I  went  down  to  his  bunk,  and  shouted  in  his  ear, 
'  Mutiny,  captain !  mutiny !'  He  shook  off  the  cadaveric 
stupor :  '  Set  me  up/  said  he,  '  and  order  these  fellows 
before  me/  He  heard  the  complaint,  ordered  punish 
ment,  and  from  that  hour  convalesced !  Keep  that  man 
awake  with  danger,  and  he  wouldn't  die  of  any  thing  till 
his  duty  was  done." 

Header,  if  there  is  a  curl  on  your  lip  now,  turn  over 
another  page:  this  story  is  not  for  you.  The  doctor 
with  his  eye  on  you  would  not  have  made  the  mistake 
of  throwing  such  a  pearl  under  your  feet. 

The  most  fatal  prognostic  of  the  doctor's  own  last 
illness  was  that  he  said  to  Mrs.  Grinnell,  as  he  was 
going  on  board  the  Baltic  for  England,  "  I  cannot  say 
that  I  will  come  back  to  you  this  time." 

But  we  were  talking  of  his  personal  make  and  quali 
ties.  To  my  eye  he  was  as  handsome  as  the  finest  com 
bination  of  form,  features,  expression,  and  action  could 
make  a  man.  His  profile  portrait  in  his  last  work — not 
the  full-face,  on  our  first  page — presents  him  as  he  was 
best  seen.  They  are  both  as  true  as  art  could  make 
them;  but  if  you  loved  the  man  you  would  see  the 
reason  for  it  clearest  in  the  one  we  prefer. 

His  fine  head  (a  feature  never  wanting  in  a  fine 
character)  was  so  well  set,  and  his  chest  was  so  large, 
that,  as  a  perfectly  proportioned  miniature  gives  the 


HYPERTKOPHY.  253 


impression  of  full  size,  one  never  felt  in  his  presence  any 
deficiency  in  his  stature. 

It  will  be  recollected  that  from  sixteen  years  of  age  he 
was  reported  by  medical  men  to  be  laboring  under  hyper 
trophy  of  the  heart, — a  -term  of  art  meaning  excess  of 
nourishment,  and  consequently  increase  of  volume,  in 
the  organ,  and  that  increase  usually  implying  disease  in 
its  muscular  tissue. 

Dr.  Jackson,  of  the  Pennsylvania  University,  who  was 
one  of  the  earliest  and  ablest  of  our  physicians  who  fol 
lowed  Laennec  in  his  method  of  exploring  the  chest,  is 
perhaps  responsible  for  this  opinion ;  but  he  tells  a  curious 
story  about  this  case  now.  He  was  in  Paris  some  years 
since,  and,  observing  that  the  statue  of  Julius  Caesar  gave 
a  similar  conformation  of  the  chest,  remarked  to  a  young 
friend  who  was  with  him,  "Caesar  had  hypertrophy." 
The  friend  said,  "No:  on  historical  authority  you  are 
wrong."  Soon  after  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  in  com 
pany  with  the  same  young  gentleman  he  one  day  met 
Dr.  Kane  in  the  street,  was  struck  with  the  resemblance, 
and  called  the  young  gentleman's  attention  to  it.  But 
upon  subsequent  reflection  he  yields  his  earlier  opinion, 
and  is  rather  inclined  now  to  ascribe  the  thoracic  fulness 
of  both  cases  to  a  disproportionately  large  heart,  without 
referring  either  to  any  diseased  change  of  size  or  form. 

No  post-mortem  examination  was  made  in  the  case 
under  consideration;  and  we  have  none  of  the  facts  which 
it  would  have  afforded  for  the  settlement  of  this  very 
curious  question. 


254  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


Dr.  Kane  was  a  marksman,  a  brilliant  horseman,  and 
a  first-rate  pedestrian.  Foot-tramps,  and  the  chase  with 
out  the  usual  relish  for  its  accompaniments,  were  a  pas 
sion  with  him.  Horses  and  dogs  were  something  more 
than  pets  and  indulgences  to  him;  but,  much  as  he 
enjoyed  the  exercise  and  excitement  of  the  forest  and 
field,  he  was  tender  to  the  objects  and  instruments  of  the 
chase  to  an  extent  that  verged  on  sentimentalism ;  but 
there  was  nothing  of  this  in  his  composition. 

His  attachment  to  dogs  and  horses  was  a  strongly 
marked  feature  in  his  character.  He  called  them  by 
their  given  names  always,  with  a  feeling  which  kindly, 
almost  respectfully,  accorded  to  them  their  poor  claims 
to  a  distinct  individuality,  if  not  personality,  with  its 
incident  rights  and  the  resulting  relations  with  their 
masters  and  among  themselves.  In  his  journal  of  "  The 
First  Grinnell  Expedition"  he  seems  to  have  been  the 
expertest  hunter  of  the  party;  yet  almost  as  frequently 
as  the  incidents  of  this  service  are  recorded,  some  protest 
is  uttered,  indicating  the  activity  of  this  sentiment  of  fel 
lowship  and  sympathy  with  the  birds  and  beasts  "  slaugh 
tered,"  as  he  styles  their  killing,  under  necessity  of  an 
overruling  humanity  towards  his  patients  among  the 
crew  needing  such  anti-scorbutic  diet. 

There  are  two  instances  of  seal-shooting,  or,  as  he  calls 
it,  gun-murder,  (at  pages  221  and  232  of  that  volume,) 
which  would  help  the  reputation  of  Sterne  himself 
for  tenderness  and  beauty  of  sentiment,  and  would 
have  given  him,  moreover,  as  good  a  personal  cha- 


KINDNESS    FOR    ANIMALS.  255 


racter,  if  he  had  had  the  honesty  and  earnestness  of 
our  author. 

The  diction  of  these  passages,  it  must  be  noticed,  is 
used  to  dash  the  confession  with  a  little  of  that  evasive 
deference  for  unsympathizing  criticism  to  which  publica 
tion  exposed  the  sentiment.  But  it  is  plain  enough  that 
the  gentle  gentleman  hoped  somebody  would  find  his 
feeling  under  its  cover,  and  be  encouraged  in  kindliness 
to  the  poor  beasts.  Moreover,  there  is  nothing  in  it  of 
the  floridness  of  parade  sentimentalism.  The  language 
has  the  very  tone  of  conscious  misdemeanor  in  it: — 
"  Scurvy  and  sea-life  craving  for  fresh  meat  led  me  to  it," 
— the  commonplace  of  the  police-office  justifying  mis 
conduct  by  the  plea  of  a  beggarly  necessity. 

In  the  year  1848, 1  think  it  was,  the  elephant  on  exhi 
bition  at  the  Philadelphia  circus  killed  his  keeper,  and 
went  on  a  spree  generally  in  the  menagerie,  making  a 
general  jail-delivery  among  the  tiger  and  lion  cages,  with 
such  zeal  that  he  broke  one  of  his  tusks  in  the  perform 
ance  of  the  day.  The  alarm  roused  the  police,  and  the 
Mayor  ordered  out  a  company  of  muskets  to  kill  the 
enraged  animal.  Dr.  Kane  heard  the  rumor,  and  went 
into  the  excitement,  but  in  his  own  way.  "  The  cowardly 
tyrants,"  he  exclaimed,  "  to  call  the  elephant  mad !  An 
animal  with  the  intelligence  of  an  elephant  has  a  right 
to  be  indignant:  that's  the  word  for  it.  He  has  been 
outraged  by  a  brute  with  less  than  his  own  intellect,  and 
nothing  of  his  sense  of  right;  and  now  he  must  be  mur 
dered  to  check  his  just  revenge!" 


256  ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


But  he  had  no  contempt  for  any  of  God's  creatures, — 
not  even  for  men  in  the  depth  of  their  debasement.  To 
a  friend  who  was  patting  a  dog  after  he  had  been  abusing 
some  of  the  lowest  and  loathsomest  of  our  own  species 
and  the  culprit-side  of  human  nature  generally,  he  said, 
"  I  like  your  kindliness  to  the  poor  dog-people :  I  have 
that  feeling  more  than  moderately  strong  myself;  but 
I  never  saw  a  man  who  was  not  higher  than  a  dog." 
This  was  after  he  had  seen  humanity  in  its  lees  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe. 

He  was  not  incapable  of  taking  human  life  for  cause 
requiring  it.  He  held  it  at  a  much  lower  value  than  the 
rights,  dignities,  and  liberties  which  belong  to  it.  These 
he  scrupulously  respected  in  all  his  actions  and  utter 
ances.  It  was  indeed  a  reverence,  as  for  a  sacred  thing, 
which  he  gave  to  the  majesty  of  manhood  and  to  its 
proper  defences :  he  never  indulged  even  in  irony,  and 
was  as  incapable  of  detraction  as  of  petty  larceny.  He  was 
always  thoughtful — carefully  thoughtful — of  his  action 
and  influence  upon  the  minds  of  those  around  him. 

He  sent  a  bullet  after  the  deserter  Godfrey,  "  at  long 
but  practicable  distance," — whether  with  the  purpose  of 
executing  summary  justice  upon  him,  or  not,  is  not  clear, 
much  less  conclusive,  in  the  circumstances;  and  the  state 
ment  by  no  means  supports  the  severest  construction  of 
which  it  is  capable,  for  he  was  not  the  man  to  propitiate 
illiberal  criticism.  But  take  it  that  he  did  not  count 
upon  the  chances  of  a  long  distance  and  a  spent  ball,  and 
that  his  aim  failed  his  purpose;  then  recollect  that  he 


NORTH    BRITISH    REVIEW.  257 


afterwards  brought  the  delinquent  a  prisoner  to  the  brig, 
at  the  expense  of  a  desperate  journey  of  one  hundred 
and  forty  miles,  when  Bonsall,  Petersen,  and  himself  were 
the  only  men  on  board  capable  of  working  for  the  rest; 
and  is  it  not  plain  that  his  motive  is  found  in  his  duty 
to  prevent  the  ruinous  influence  which  the  wretched 
fellow  would  exert  over  the  Esquimaux  at  Etah,  upon 
whose  friendly  offices  the  crew  under  his  command  and 
care  at  the  time  depended  for  their  very  existence  ?* 

Governed  by  a  magnanimous  deference  for  other  men's 
rights,  which  was  not  a  weakness  or  a  factitious  senti 
ment,  but  a  ruling  principle,  with  him,  he  was  heroically 
patient  and  forbearing  towards  those  whose  defection  in 
the  hour  of  his  sorest  need  put  his  goodness  and  great 
ness  of  heart  to  the  severest  proof. 

*  It  is  worthy  of  notice  here,  that  of  more  than  a  thousand  reviews 
of  his  book,  the  North  British  Review  is  the  only  journal  that  has  found 
fault  with  his  conduct  in  this  affair — or  in  any  other.  And  it  is  just  as  re 
markable  that  this  reviewer  suppresses  the  justifying  reason,  the  impe 
rative  necessity,  in  his  statement  of  the  case.  I  say  suppresses,  for  he 
quotes  every  thing  else  in  the  passage  which  contains  it,  as  by  a  careful 
selection.  Dr.  Kane's  language  is,  "  I  learned,  too,  that  Godfrey  was 
playing  the  great  man  at  Etah,  defying  recapture;  and  I  was  not  willing 
to  trust  the  influence  he  might  exert  on  my  relations  with  the  tribe."  The 
reviewer  has  it,  "  Godfrey  was  at  Etah  with  the  Esquimaux ;  and  the 
moment  Dr.  Kane  heard  it  he  resolved  '  that  he  should  return  to  the 
ship/  "  The  writer,  in  every  particular  of  his  censorious  strictures,  was 
evidently  in  the  condition  of  a  man  who  does  not  see  what  he  neither 
understands  nor  desires  to  find  in  the  case  before  him,  however  plain  it 
may  be  to  everybody  else. 

17 


258  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Turn  to  the  first  volume  of  his  second  voyage,  at  pages 
83  and  348;  estimate  the  pressure  of  the  conditions  in 
which  he  was  placed;  and  then  look  where  you  will  for 
an  equally  imposing  exhibition  of  generous  justice. 

He  was  not  a  coward;  he  could  bear  all  his  own  bur 
dens:  he  was  not  an  egotist,  and  did  not  pile  censure 
upon  other  people's  heads  to  save  his  own. 

In  work,  exercise,  and  mental  application,  he  was 
intense,  and,  therefore,  not  systematic.  He  was  remark 
able  not  only  for  getting  along  with  very  little  sleep,  but 
for  irregularity  also  in  its  indulgence.  He  was  as  little 
as  possible  subject  to  habit  or  periodicity;  and  he  seemed 
rather  to  engineer  his  faculties  by  his  will  than  to  give 
up  any  of  his  conduct  to  the  rule  of  custom.  He  fought 
hard  for  his  freedom  from  himself,  and,  resultingly,  he  had 
always  at  command  a"  loose  foot,  a  free  hand,  and  stood 
in  ready  adjustment  to  exigencies.  He  conformed  to 
usages  for  convenience'  sake,  without  any  struggling,  but 
without  any  submission ;  and,  having  no  imperious  neces 
sities  of  his  own,  he  had  no  conflict  with  those  of  other 
people. 

Whether  he  retired  early  or  late,  he  rose  early,  taking 
long  walks  before  breakfast  when  no  pressure  of  engage 
ments  threw  him  out.  But  when  he  had  something  on 
hand  which  must  be  done  to  time, — as  writing  his  last  book, 
— he  worked  till  three  in  the  morning,  and  then  took 
out  the  tuck  of  the  long  constraint  and  relieved  himself 
of  its  weariness  by  a  dashing  ride  of  five  or  six  miles,  or 
by  cracking  his  dog- whips  in  the  yard  for  an  hour  or  two, 


TOODLA-MIK.  259 


— whips  with  lashes  from  sixteen  to  thirty-three  feet 
long,  which  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  could  unfold ;  but 
he  could  crack  them  like  a  pistol.  They  were  the  whips 
used  in  driving  his  Esquimaux  dog-teams. 

And  what  a  wild  carouse  old  Toodla-mik,  the  leader 
of  his  Arctic  sledge-hacks,  would  have  with  him  in  the 
frosty  mornings  of  their  last  winter's  fellowship !  It  was 
a  rough  communion,  and  not  quite  a  complete  one. 
Toodla  was  an  "Injin,"  every  inch  of  him, — hyena, 
wolf,  and  slave  in  a  mixture, — fierce  as  the  boldest 
of  the  types,  and  cowardly  and  treacherous  as  the 
worst. 

At  the  first  call  he  would  look  out  of  his  kennel  and 
hesitate  a  moment ;  then,  without  the  usual  all-hail  of  the 
civilized  canine, — for  he  had  not  learned  to  bark, — with  a 
bound  he  was  upon  the  doctor's  shoulders,  looking  a 
sneaking  compound  of  felony  and  fondness.  Then  for  the 
play :  the  whip  was  the  attraction,  not  the  compulsion. 
It  looked  Arctic  and  Esquimaux  enough  to  see  him 
springing  like  mad  to  receive  the  lash  wherever  it  fell; 
no  fear  of  the  cracker.  There  was  no  place  exposed  to 
it  except  the  eyes,  nose,  and  fore-feet.  Under  defence  of 
such  a  coat  of  hair,  nothing  but  a  cudgel  could  reach  his 
sensibilities. 

Toodla  had  his  virtues,  whether  he  intended  them  or 
not.  He  had  rendered  services  made  high  and  noble  by 
their  appropriation.  His  name  is  connected  with  many 
memories  which  will  not  soon  perish;  and  he  stands  now, 
his  own  monument,  preserved  in  that  Westminster  Abbey 


260  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


of  representative  animals,  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  of  Philadelphia. 

In  personal  habits  Dr.  Kane  was  nice  even  to  dainti 
ness  ;  temperate  and  delicate  in  diet,  and  abstinent  from 
wine  as  a  beverage,  taking  it  only  as  a  form  of  table  or 
social  courtesy,  nor  then,  if  refusal  would  cost  less  than 
compliance.  He  had  a  horror  of  tobacco  in  all  its  forms. 
When  a  friend  defended  its  use  with  the  remark,  "  Its  cost 
is  trivial,  a  mere  nothing,"  he  retorted,  "But  what  does 
your  tobacco-function  cost  your  body,  and,  per  conse 
quence,  the  agent  within?" 

His  intellectual  tastes  expressed  his  character  and 
conformed  to  it.  He  was  not  a  novel-reader;  and  for  the 
stage  he  had  no  relish.  "The  theatre,"  he  says,  "has 
always  been  to  me  a  wretched  simulation  of  realities; 
and  I  have  too  little  sympathy  with  the  unreal  to  find 
pleasure  in  it  long."  His  favorite  books  are  in  the  ice  of 
Smith's  Sound :  they  modified  him  less  than  they  enter 
tained  him. 

In  fifteen  hundred  pages  of  book-matter,  he  never 
makes  a  quotation  to  assist  himself  in  expression,  except 
one  from  Bunyan ;  and  even  that  is  used  for  its  allegori 
cal  effect  as  much  as  for  its  beauty  and  power. 

He  wrote  his  own  poetry  in  the  higher  form  of  prose : 
for  two  instances  out  of  many  hundreds,  read  the  fol 
lowing  gems,  wrenched  as  they  are  from  their  exquisite 
settings : — 

"  I  am  afraid  to  speak  of  some  of  these  night-scenes. 
I  have  trodden  the  deck  and  the  floes  when  the  life  of 


PROSE-POETRY.  261 


earth  seemed  suspended, — its  movements,  its  sounds,  its 
coloring,  its  companionships;  and  as  I  looked  on  the 
radiant  hemisphere,  circling  above  me  as  if  rendering 
worship  to  the  unseen  Centre  of  light,  I  have  ejaculated, 
in  humility  of  spirit,  '  Lord,  what  is  man,  that  thou  art 
mindful  t)f  him?'  And  then  I  have  thought  of  the 
kindly  world  we  had  left,  with  its  revolving  sunshine 
and  shadow,  and  the  other  stars  that  gladden  it  in  their 
changes,  and  the  hearts  that  warmed  to  us  there,  till  I 
lost  myself  in  memories  of  those  who  are  not ;  and  they 
bore  me  back  to  the  stars  again." 

He  finds  a  poppy,  green  under  seven  feet  of  snow. 
A  lucidly  simple  explanation  of  its  securities  in  a  climate 
that  runs  down  to  50°  below  zero  warms  his  fancy  into 
poetic  sympathy  with  its  delicate  life  : — "  No  eider-down 
in  the  cradle  of  an  infant  is  tucked  in  more  kindly  than 
the  sleeping-dress  of  winter  about  this  feeble  flower-life." 

His  logic  was  nothing  akin  to  the  legal  method  of  rea 
soning.  It  was  amusing  to  hear  him  answer  a  lawyerly 
argument  which  had  run  away  from  the  sharply 
severe  sequence  and  drift  of  the  facts  involved, — "I 
don't  understand  you."  An  edifice  of  assumption  and 
generalities  went  down  under  his  touch  like  a  card 
house,  however  systematically  built.  His  demand  upon 
his  interlocutor  was,  "What  do  you  know?"  and  his 
reservation  seemed  to  be,  "  I  can  do  my  own  thinking." 

Nor  was  his  method  merely  the  analogical,  although 
it  was  chiefly  by  contrast  and  resemblance.  He  trusted 
implicitly  to  nothing  but  the  accuracy  of  observation  em- 


262  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


ployed  upon  the  subject  itself,  guarding  himself  against  the 
risks  of  resemblance,  on  the  suspicion  that  the  process 
often  unconsciously  conceals  vicious  speculations.  And 
he  was  as  cautious  with  induction ;  for  he  was  well  aware 
that  it  is  much  given  to  putting  distance  over-boldly 
between  the  truths  which  it  connects,  and  is  often  unsafe 
both  in  data  and  demonstration.  Nor  did  he  jumble 
induction  and  analogy  after  the  manner  of  the  current 
philosophizing  in  which  there  is  so  little  philosophy. 
"Then,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  rational,  how  did  he 
think  ?"  Take  this  for  a  reply,  and  in  it  or  by  it  find  the 
answer: — He  believed  all  that  he  knew,  and  he  trusted 
his  whole  weight  upon  the  legitimate  inferences  as  far 
as  they  would  carry  him,  but  still  holding  deductions 
for  mere  hypotheses  until  he  had  proved  them  by  their 
trial  upon  the  facts,  all  the  while  proceeding  as  reso 
lutely  as  the  simplest  credulity  could  do;  and  so,  his 
characteristic  audacity  of  belief  was  never  misguided  by 
inferences  mistaken  for  certainties. 

His  faith  in  medicine  was  decidedly  thin,  but  not  lim 
ber.  He  says  of  it,  "I  am,  I  fear,  heterodox  almost 
to  infidelity  as  to  the  direct  action  of  remedies,  and 
rarely  allow  myself  to  claim  a  sequence  as  a  result." 

For  routine-practice  and  the  highest  professional  suc 
cess  he  perhaps  had  not  a  just  appreciation.  He  preferred 
the  achievements  of  an  explorer,  mixed  with  adventure, 
to  the  reputation  of  Hunter  or  Harvey.  His  skepticism 
in  drug-practice  had  a  basis  in  his  own  make,  which 
put  life,  in  his  idea,  out  of  and  above  the  reach  of  che- 


BENEFITS    OF    HIS    MEDICAL.  STUDY.        263 


micals.  This  feeling,  which  was  to  him  a  fountain  of 
opinion  as  well  as  a  spring  of  action,  shows  itself  just  in 
the  right  place.  When  the  Advance  party  were  reduced 
to  ten  men,  and  four  of  them  were  on  their  backs,  the 
thermometer  at  30°  below  zero,  and  prospects  even 
lower,  he  says,  speaking  of  Morton  and  Hans,  "  I  can 
see  strength  of  system  in  their  cheerfulness  of  heart. 
The  best  prophylactic  is  a  hopeful,  sanguine  tempera 
ment;  the  best  cure,  moral  resistance, — that  spirit  of 
combat  against  every  trial  which  is  alone  true  bravery." 

Yet  he  was  not  unaware  of  the  advantages  which  his 
medical  attainments  gave  him.  In  his  darkest  day  he 
says,  "I  am  glad  of  my  professional  drill  and  its  com 
panion-influence  over  the  sick  and  toil-worn.  I  could 
not  get  along  at  all  unless  I  combined  the  offices  of 
physician  and  commander." 

Anatomical  and  physiological  study,  in  fact,  had  done 
more  for  him  than  he  knew.  There  is  nothing  like  the 
former  for  art  in  observing  and  describing  the  physical 
properties  of  things;  and  no  method  of  inquiry  goes 
more  directly  or  thoroughly  into  the  phenomena  of  forces 
and  the  dependency  of  actions  than  that  of  the  latter. 
Dr.  Kane's  descriptive  powers  gained  greatly  by  his 
training  in  the  study  of  anatomy  and  the  practice  of 
the  dissecting-room  and  the  laboratory;  and  his  applica 
tion  of  the  doctrine  of  endosmose  to  the  explanation  of 
Arctic  ice-thaw  while  the  thermometer  is  still  below  the 
freezing-point,  and  its  happy  help  to  the  understanding 
of  that  paradox  of  fact,  the  viscous  flow  of  the  glaciers, 


264  ELISHA    KENT     KANE. 


is  a  splendid  example  of  the  extension  of  physiological 
science  to  one  of  the  most  remote  fields  of  physical  in 
quiry. 

Dr.  Kane's  trouble  with  medicine  was  that  hypothesis 
must  be  so  largely  accepted  for  facts,  and  agencies 
hazardously  credited  with  efficiency  upon  grounds  but 
slightly  supported  by  evidence.  In  a  word,  his  mental 
integrity  was  something  too  stubborn  for  the  authority 
of  oracles. 

His  power  to  govern  his  subordinates  and  to  lead  his 
equals  was  not  overmeasured  by  his  reliance  upon  it. 

He  went  out  on  his  last  voyage  without  any  of  the  rules 
and  regulatioas  which  govern  our  national  marine,  or 
authority  to  enforce  them.  The  men  were  volunteers,  and 
the  expedition  was  a  private  venture.  Yet  on  deck,  in  dan 
gerous  and  difficult  navigation,  he  held  the  respect  of 
the  sailors.  Tried  every  day  by  the  rough  standard  of 
these  regular-bred  routinists,  they  felt  and  conceded  his 
superiority.  When  he  bravely  ventured  upon  the  outside 
passage  of  Melville  Bay  on  his  outward-bound  trip,  Brooks 
and  McGary  thought  he  must  be  right,  though  they  had 
never  heard  of  such  a  thing  before;  and,  when  two  years 
of  daily  trials  had  habituated  them  to  a  frank  obedience, 
they  followed  him  in  an  open  boat  through  the  same 
perilous  passage  which  the  little  brig  had  first  found  by 
the  instincts  of  her  commander.  It  was  like  inviting  a 
score  of  draymen  to  make  an  ascension  in  a  paper  balloon 
through  a  snow-storm ;  but  they  trusted,  for  they  had 


ESQUIMAUX    ALLIES.  265 


learned  a  habit  of  dependence  by  a  thousand  instances 
of  assuring  experience. 

He  was  at  once  indomitable  and  irresistible;  but  the 
spring  in  his  spirit  was  neither  a  blind  temerity  nor  an 
irreflective  transport,  for  he  never  took  a  step  undirected 
by  forethought :  his  boldness  was  reliance  upon  the 
anticipations  of  caution,  and  just  because  he  looked  so 
carefully  ahead  he  never  looked  back.  It  was  not  as  a 
phrase-maker,  but  as  a  law-maker,  he  uttered  these  max 
ims  of  order : — "  I  realize  fully  the  moral  effects  of  an  un 
broken  routine."  "  Whatever  of  executive  ability  I  have 
picked  up  during  this  brain  and  body  wearing  cruise 
warns  me  against  immature  preparation  or  vacillating 
purposes.  I  must  have  an  exact  discipline,  a  rigid 
routine,  and  a  perfectly-thought-out  organization." 

But,  wonderful  as  the  history  of  his  reign  over  his  own 
desperately  tried  crew  through  all  the  adventures  of  the 
cruise  appears,  his  management  of  his  Esquimaux 
neighbors  of  Etah  varies,  if  it  does  not  otherwise  en 
hance,  the  evidence  of  his  mental  mastery  over  his 
fellow-men.  These  animal-men  began  by  robbing  the 
brig,  and  at  one  time  would  have  been  willing  to  destroy 
the  crew :  they  ended  by  helping  them  to  purpose  on 
their  retreat  from  Tbhe  scene  of  their  sufferings.  He  says 
of  them,  "As  long  as  we  remained  prisoners  of  the 
ice,  we  were  indebted  to  them  for  invaluable  counsel  in 
relation  to  our  hunting-excursions ;  and  in  the  joint 
hunt  we  shared  alike,  according  to  their  laws.  Our 
dogs  were,  in  one  sense,  common  property ;  and  often 


266  ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


they  have  robbed  themselves  to  offer  supplies  of  food  to 
our  starving  teams.  They  gave  us  supplies  of  meat  at 
critical  periods :  we  were  able  to  do  as  much  for  them. 
They  learned  to  look  on  us  only  as  benefactors,  and,  I 
know,  mourned  our  departure  bitterly."  Their  own 
statement  and  explanation  of  the  relations  subsisting  so 
long  and  so  happily  between  themselves  and  his  party 
has  matter  in  it  to  dwell  upon : — "  You  have  done  us 
good.  We  are  not  hungry;  we  will  not  take  [steal]. 
You  have  done  us  good  :  we  want  to  help  you  :  we  are 
friends." 

Savage  superstition  and  the  marvellous  six-shooter 
had  some  share  in  this  influence;  but  he  observed  a  jus 
tice  in  his  dealings  with  them  which  secured  their  con 
fidence,  and  exhibited  a  superiority,  in  all  the  qualities 
of  manhood  which  they  understood,  that  could  not  fail 
to  impose  respect. 

His  emotions  at  parting  with  these  poor  creatures 
were  the  earnings  of  his  admirable  management  of 
them  through  all  their  strange  intercourse  : — "  I  blessed 
them  for  their  humanity  to  us  with  a  fervor  of  heart 
which  from  a  better  man  per  ad  venture  might  have 
carried  a  blessing  along  with  it." 

The  heart  so  tender  and  true  to  objects  so  repulsive 
as  these  could  not  be  insensible  to  the  charm  that  there 
is  in  childhood,  in  its  beauty  and  innocence,  or  indifferent 
to  its  claims  to  the  consideration  and  care  which  may 
minister  to  its  culture  jmder  the  influences  of  Chris 
tian  civilization. 


FONDNESS    FOR    CHILDREN.  267 


Dr.  Kane  loved  children  with  a  woman's  tenderness 
and  a  man's  forethought.  When  he  was  about  leaving  for 
England,  and  a  course  of  popular  lectures  was  proposed 
to  him  in  the  event  of  his  early  return  to  the  United 
States,  with  the  tempting  assurance  of  ten  thousand 
dollars  for  the  ensuing  winter's  work,  he  answered, 
"  I  will  not  talk  about  that  now ;  but  if  I  do  come  back, 
and  have  but  the  strength  to  deliver  one  lecture,  it  shall 
be  to  an  audience  of  children." 

He  was  once  urged  to  write  a  Robinson  Crusoe  story 
of  his  adventures.  He  looked  up  at  first  with  the  sur 
prise  of  his  habitual  self-depreciation  and  despair  of 
strength  for  such  a  task ;  but  the  idea  brightened, — doubt 
less  with  this  cherished  reference  to  the  service  of  the 
youth  of  the  country,  and  said,  "But  could  I  do  it?" 
The  answer  was,  "  Yes,  and  without  exhaustion,  or  risk 
of  failure  in  the  effect:  that  is  your  style  exactly." 
"  I'll  do  it,"  said  he,  and  walked  off  in  a  glow  of  pleasure, 
as  if  to  indulge  the  anticipation  to  the  full  and  enjoy 
it  unobserved. 

The  loss  is  fellow  to  the  sorrow  of  all  the  disappoint 
ment  which  shrouds  these  buried  hopes.  His  death  was 
untimely ;  for  he  could  have  lived  to  the  end  of  his  days, 
however  prolonged. 

The  liberal  spirit  and  considerate  feeling  towards  the 
men  under  his  command — all  of  them — that  marks  the 
book  which  immortalizes  all  its  subjects  is  in  perfect 
keeping  with  the  character  he  displayed  where  his  tastes 
were  gratified  and  his  affections  secured.  It  proves  that 


268  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


his  virtues  were  not  the  caprices  of  feeling,  but  held  the 
rank  of  principles  in  his  character.  It  was  magnanimity 
without  its  pride.  He  rendered  justice  by  the  rule  that 
exacts  little  where  little  is  given;  and  he  did  not  so 
much  forgive  as  justify  the  deficiencies  of  limited  capa 
bilities,  moral  as  well  as  mental  and  physical;  and  it 
was  not  in  disappointment  or  suffering,  however  severe, 
to  warp  his  justice  or  sharpen  his  judgments. 

But  this  chapter  of  personal  characterization  must 
close. 

His  scientific  attainments,  great  and  varied  as  they 
were,  were  as  nothing  to  him  except  as  they  could  be 
worked  into  his  practical  life.  They  must  be  overpassed 
in  his  biography ;  for  it  must  not  give  them  a  prominence 
which  he  refused  them.  And  his  literary  acquirements 
and  achievements, — they  are  rendered  by  a  thousand 
pens,  whose  several  authorities  each  one  outweighs  the 
worth  of  my  opinions. 

Success  was  the  measure  by  which  he  judged  his  own 
strivings.  The  generation  which  he  addressed  and 
served  shall  judge  the  works  that  survive  him,  remem 
bering  only  that,  had  he  lived,  he  would  have  written  a 
book  of  Arctic  science  for  his  peers,  and  a  hand-book  of 
natural  history,  travel,  and  adventure  levelled  to  the 
intellectual  capacities  of  childhood  and  lifted  to  the 
rank  of  its  requirements.  Credit  him  with  the  purpose 
of  such  a  service  to  the  world  as  this,  and  estimate  his 
capability  by  the  evidence  he  has  afforded  in  that  which 
he  has 


LETTER  FKOM  DK.  HAYES, 

SURGEON    OP    DR.    KANE'S    EXPEDITION. 

DR.  KANE'S   PLAN  OP  SEARCH — ADVENTURES  OP  THE  DEPOT-PARTY — RETURN  OF 

PART   OP   THEM — STARTING   OP  THE   RELIEF-PARTY — INADEQUATE   APPLIANCES — 

SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE — THEIR  RETURN — DEATH  OF  BAKER  AND  SCHUBERT — DR. 
KANE'S  SICKNESS — WANT  OF  DOGS — APPEARANCE  OF  ESQUIMAUX — AN  EXCHANGE 

EFFECTED — BREAKING   DOWN. 

ON  the  opening  of  the  spring  of  1854,  Dr.  Kane's  health  was  much 
improved,  and  his  plan  of  search  was  fully  developed  before  the  return 
of  the  summer. 

A  depot  of  provisions  was  to  be  established  to  the  northward  of  the 
vessel,  upon  the  most  northern  point  of  the  opposite  coast  of  the  strait ; 
and,  upon  the  return  of  the  party  sent  out  for  the  purpose,  it  was  his 
intention  to  push  forward  at  the  head  of  his  grand  party,  and,  making 
this  depot  or  cache  his  final  starting-point,  descend  in  as  nearly  the 
direction  of  the  Pole  as  circumstances  would  admit,  until  reaching  the 
extreme  north  shore  of  the  American  continent,  when  he  would  turn 
to  the  westward  in  search  of  the  missing  expedition. 

This  dep6t-party  was  sent  out  under  charge  of  Mr.  Brooks ;  and,  as 
you  know,  it  resulted  only  in  disaster.  They  encountered  tremendous 
ridges  of  hummocks  in  the  centre  of  the  channel,  from  ten  to  forty  feet 
in  height.  After  battling  with  these  for  eight  days,  and  finding  it  im 
possible  to  pass  them,  they  set  out  on  their  return ;  but  on  the  first  day 
of  their  retreat  four  of  them  were  frozen  and  rendered  helpless.  Placing 
the  sick  in  their  sleeping-bags  within  the  tent,  and  leaving  Hickey  to 
look  after  their  wants,  the  remaining  three  (Ohlsen,  Petersen,  and  Son- 
tag)  put  off  for  the  vessel,  forty  miles  distant,  in  a  bee-line,  which  they 
reached  in  thirteen  hours  without  a  halt. 

Immediately  upon  their  arrival,  Dr.  Kane  organized  a  relief-party, — 
consisting  of  all  the  well  men  in  the  ship  except  myself,  I  being  left 
behind  to  be  in  condition  to  receive  the  sick  when  they  should  arrive. 
There  were  at  the  time  five  on  board  incapable  of  duty. 

The  relief- party  therefore  consisted  of  eight,  besides  Dr.  Kane.  Ohlsen 

269 


270  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


was  of  the  number,  and  acted  as  guide,  starting  back  after  a  rest  of  but 
two  hours. 

This  relief-expedition  was  the  heroic  performance  of  the  cruise ;  and  when 
we  are  made  acquainted  with  the  plain  facts  connected  with  it,  when  we 
reflect  that  it  was  triumphantly  successful  against  all  odds,  (and  such  odds,) 
we  are  astonished  at  the  endurance  of  the  actors  in  the  drama,  and  of  the 
responsible  person.  The  leader  of  the  band — he  who  took  them  out  and 
brought  them  safely  back — looms  up  in  our  imagination  as  something 
more  than  human.  At  that  time  we  were  inured  to  hardship  and 
scarcely  realized  the  magnitude  of  the  deed.  The  calmer  reflection  of 
later  days  makes  me  shudder  at  the  bare  thought  of  the  condition  of 
this  party  when  I  first  saw  them,  after  a  march  of  nearly  a  hundred 
miles  without  sleep  or  rest,  and  for  seventy  hours  constantly  exposed  to 
a  temperature  ranging  from  20°  to  50°  below  zero. 

Dr.  Kane  had  not  yet  taken  the  field  for  exploration,  but  was  pre 
paring  himself  for  his  grand  journey  upon  the  arrival  of  the  party  of  Mr. 
Brooks  at  the  vessel.  He  was  in  no  condition  to  hazard  such  an  enter 
prise;  and  he  certainly  would,  under  the  circumstances,  have  been 
excusable  had  he  despatched  the  party  under  command  of  Ohlsen  or 
some  other  competent  person.  But  that  was  not  the  metal  of  the  man. 
He  was  not  the  one  to  shirk  danger,  greater  though  it  might  be  to  him 
than  to  others. 

The  rescue-party  set  out  in  two  hours  after  Ohlsen  arrived.  They 
carried  only  three  pounds  of  lard,  twice  as  many  of  pemmican,  and  a  small 
tent  (our  only  one)  that  barely  sufficed  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
relief-party.  There  was  one  being  made  which  would  have  held  the 
entire  party;  but  it  would  have  taken  eight  or  ten  hours  to  finish  it; 
and,  said  Kane,  "  in  those  eight  or  ten  hours  our  comrades  in  the 
wilderness  may  die." 

If  they  had  been  provided  with  a  good  tent,  provisions  for  four  or  five 
days,  sleeping-fixtures,  and  a  strong  guide,  they  would  have  been  prepared 
for  any  emergency.  As  it  was,  God  only  knows  how  they  reached  the 
tent  on  thfc  ice.  The  tracks  were  obliterated ;  their  compass  was  sluggish ; 
their  only  guide-boards  were  the  bergs,  and  these  were  almost  all  identical 
in  shape.  Every  thing  depended  upon  Ohlsen.  Had  he  lost  his  way,  or 
broken  down,  or  become  stupefied  with  cold  and  exposure,  there  would 
scarcely  have  been  one  chance  in  a  hundred  that  they  would  ever  reach 
the  tent;  and  in  their  efforts  to  find  it — groping  about  without  the 
slightest  knowledge  of  where  they  were,  out  of  sight  of  land,  ill  disposed 
to  give  up  the  search — I  saw  little  chance  of  their  doing  other  than 


LETTER    FROM    DR.    HAYES.  271 


perish,  and  the  men  whom  they  sought  would  have  died  without  know 
ledge  that  they  were  remembered. 

But  Ohlsen  did  not  lose  his  way,  nor  break  down,  nor  become  stupefied, 
and  my  black  picture  may  therefore  be  called  useless.  But  why  he  did  not 
is  to  me  a  mystery.  He  was  the  strongest  man  I  ever  saw ;  and,  although 
he  had  walked  double  the  distance,  when  at  last  they  reached  the  tent 
he  was  the  best  man  of  them  all.  There  was  a  special  providence  in  it. 

I  was  very  fearful — indeed,  felt  almost  certain — that  I  should  never 
see  Dr.  Kane  again  alive.  When  he  set  off,  he  looked  the  suffering 
invalid  that  he  was ;  but  now,  as  always  when  something  was  to  be 
done  which  required  nerve  and  manhood,  a  sleeping  power  was  aroused 
within  him,  which  sent  palpitating  heart,  puffed  cheeks,  rheumatic 
joints,  and  scurvy  limbs  hastily  to  cover. 

They  all  came  back  delirious :  they  were  knocked  up  with  scurvy. 
Two  of  the  rescued — Brooks  and  Wilson — lost  toes;  two  others — Baker 
and  Schubert — died. 

Baker  died  of  lock-jaw  a  few  days  after  his  return,  and  the  circum 
stances  attending  his  death  were  the  most  distressing  I  ever  witnessed. 
I  discovered  his  disease  before  the  morning  watch  was  called ;  and  in  less 
than  twenty-four  hours  he  was  a  corpse.  Dr.  Kane  was  more  oppressed 
by  the  prospect  of  Baker's  death  than  he  had  appeared  to  be  by  that  of 
his  own.  He  paced  the  upper  deck  during  a  greater  part  of  the  day. 
He  had  a  tender  heart;  and  he  could  not  bear  to  witness  human  suffering 
if  duty  did  not  call  him  to  the  bedside,  or  to  administer  to  the  sufferer. 

Dr.  Kane  was  then  again  confined  to  his  bed,  from  causes  which  I  will 
presently  relate ;  and  so  weak  was  he  that  I  was  afraid  to  announce 
poor  Schubert's  death  to  him.  It  affected  him  seriously,  and  renewed 
his  cardiac  troubles. 

The  greater  part  of  Dr.  Kane's  dogs  died  during  the  winter  of 
1853-54.  This  loss  caused  him,  in  making  out  his  plans,  to  rely  almost 
solely  upon  the  physical  force  of  his  crew. 

On  the  opening  of  spring  we  had  but  three  dogs;  and,  after  the 
return  of  the  first  party  and  their  rescuers,  all  hands  were  knocked  up 
completely.  With  these  three  dogs,  and  six  men  upon  whom  he  thought 
he  might  count  with  tolerable  certainty  in  a  week  or  two,  Dr.  Kane 
was  preparing  to  take  the  field.  But,  just  in  time,  the  Esquimaux 
appeared, — four  men,  with  four  sledges  and  twenty-four  or  twenty-six 


I  venture  to  say  that  this  day  was  one  of  the  happiest  of  Dr.  Kane's 
life,  and  certainly  the  happiest  he  had  seen  for  many  a  week.     "  Esqui- 


272  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


maux  alongside !"  shouted  McGary  down  the  hatch.  The  person  for 
whose  ears  the  words  were  intended  might  with  great  propriety  have 
answered  with  an  interrogative  "  What  ?"  or  stopped  to  think  what  good 
could  come  of  it.  But  the  word  "Esquimaux"  was  enough.  It  was 
significant  of  dogs;  and  for  dogs  he  had  prayed.  I  would  give  much  to 
see  the  picture  which  shot  out  meteor-like  upon  his  imagination,  trans 
forming  him  from  a  weak,  quiet  invalid  lying  on  his  back,  reading  a 
volume  of  the  Naturalist's  Library,  into  a  strong  and  vigorous  man 
standing  upon  the  shore  of  the  open  sea,  or  on  the  floe,  with  Sir  John 
Franklin's  hand  fast  locked  in  his  own. 

He  was  lying  in  his  bunk.  "Esquimaux  alongside!"  had  hardly 
been  caught  by  the  half-slumbering  crew;  but  no  such  sound  could 
be  lost  on  the  ears  of  Kane.  Quicker  than  a  flash  he  was  out  upon 
the  deck.  His  only  words  were  (and  these,  I  believe,  he  got  off 
between  leaving  his  blankets  and  alighting  upon  the  deck  with  an 
emphasis  you  will  be  well  able  to  appreciate)  "  Thank  Heaven  !  I'll  make 
my  journey  now."  His  clothes  were  on  in  a  twinkling;  he  was  out 
upon  the  floes  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell  it ;  and  in  half  an  hour 
he  was  richer  by  a  team  of  dogs,  and  poorer  by  a  couple  of  butcher- 
knives  and  a  few  needles.  He  was  a  sick  man  no  more,  and  in  a  few 
days  was  in  the  field  with  a  train  of  seven  men  and  a  team  of  seven 


But  the  spirit  and  enthusiastic  devotion  to  duty  which  had  carried 
him  through  the  rescue,  and  the  consciousness  of  responsibility  which 
bore  him  up  through  the  trying  days  which  followed,  could  not  give 
him  muscle,  nor  recharge  the  over-exhausted  electric-battery  of  his 
nervous  system.  To  break  down  at  last  was  inevitable :  yet  he  would 
not  "  give  in."  For  two  days  he  was  carried  forward  on  the  dog-sledge, 
unable  to  walk,  or  stir  hand  or  foot.  Sinking,  and  almost  insensible,  his 
party  put  about,  and,  by  forced  marches,  reached  the  vessel  at  last. 
We  met  our  commander  at  the  gangway  supported  by  his  companions, 
and  apparently  dying.  At  that  moment  his  resuscitation  seemed  to  me 
impossible. 

****** 

Truly  yours,  with  respect, 

I.  I.  HAYES. 
WEST  CHESTER,  PA.,  July  18,  1857. 


LETTER    FROM    AMOS    BONSALL.  273 


LETTER  FKOM  AMOS  BONSALL, 

A    MEMBER    OF   DR.  KANE*S   EXPEDITION. 

EARLY   ACQUAINTANCE    WITH    DR.    KANE — VOLUNTEERING    FOR    THE    EXPEDITION- 
CHARACTER     OF    THE    SAILORS DR.    KANE'S    ALLEGED    CRUELTY    TO    HIS     MEN — 

HIS     LENIENCY HIS     SELF-DENIAL     AND     KINDNESS     TO     THE     SICK DEATH     OF 

JEFFERSON    T.  BAKER    AND    PIERRE    SCHUBERT CHARACTER    OF    BAKER. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Knowing  that  you  are  engaged  in  the  publication  of  a 
"Life  of  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,"  written  by  Dr.Wm.  Elder,  I  thought 
perhaps  it  would  be  proper  for  me  to  give  you  some  of  my  impressions 
of  him  as  a  friend,  a  commander,  and  a  man.  In  speaking  of  him  as  a 
friend,  I  shall  pass  over  the  earlier  period  of  our  acquaintance  during 
my  own  boyhood,  merely  remarking  that  I  had  a  great  admiration  for 
his  achievements  in  India,  China,  and  other  parts  of  the  Eastern  Conti 
nent, — incidents  and  anecdotes  of  which  I  had  heard  from  himself  and 
others. 

Having  expressed  a  desire,  if  he  ever  made  a  second  voyage  to  the 
Arctic  region,  to  accompany  him,  he  wrote  me  early  in  December  of 
1852;  and  I  volunteered  immediately  on  his  informing  me  that  he  could 
secure  me  a  situation  on  board  his  vessel. 

From  that  time  I  was  in  daily  intercourse  with  him,  and  always  found 
him  kind  and  courteous  in  the  highest  degree.  After  I  left  home  for 
New  York,  before  the  sailing  of  the  Expedition,  he,  during  a  short  visit 
to  Philadelphia,  having  a  few  hours  to  spare,  drove  out  to  visit  my 
parents,  and  gave  them  my  last  adieu  and  brought  me  their  blessing 
and  last  charges;  and  that  at  a  time  when  he  was  suffering  very 
severely  from  chronic  rheumatism  and  scarcely  able  to  rise  from  his 
bed. 

After  we  were  fairly  embarked,  he  sank  for  a  time  from  sea-sickness, 
and  was  always  ill  whenever  there  was  breeze  enough  to  create  the 
slightest  swell.  In  fact,  I  believe  no  man  but  Dr.  Kane  would  have 
persevered  in  the  voyage  under  the  accumulated  diseases  from  which  he 
suffered  at  that  time ;  and  I  scarcely  think  there  was  one  of  the  Expe 
dition  who  thought  his  recovery  possible. 

On  account  of  his  sickness  at  the  time  of  the  fitting  out  of  the  Expe 
dition,  a  great  deal  was  necessarily  intrusted  to  others,  and  we  sailed 
very  imperfectly  prepared  to  encounter  the  perils  and  privations  of  an 

18 


274  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


Arctic  winter;  and,  worse  than  all,  the  men  had  been  shipped  from 
the  ordinary  class  of  sailors  in  port,  without  regard  to  their  moral  cha 
racter  or  physical  ability;  and  before  reaching  Greenland  we  had  diffi 
culties  with  some  which  should  not  have  occurred,  and  others  were 
comparatively  useless  on  account  of  sickness. 

Here  I  may  with  propriety  speak  of  a  charge  which  has  been  promul 
gated  since  his  decease, — that  of  "  cruelty  to  his  men."  I  must  say  that, 
so  far  from  being  cruel,  in  many  instances  I  considered  that  the  punish 
ment  was  by  no  means  commensurate  with  the  offence;  and  had  he 
been  more  severe  at  the  beginning  of  the  voyage  he  would  have  had 
less  trouble  at  the  latter  part. 

His  course  was  always  to  incite  to  exertion  with  the  promise  of 
rewards.  To  those  who  had  not  ambition  to  exert  themselves  for  the 
common  good,  the  punishments  were,  unfortunately,  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  have  no  terrors.  Indeed,  I  have  known  individuals  to  commit 
offences  for  the  express  purpose  of  being  put  in  confinement  and  thereby 
escape,  their  daily  routine  of  duty. 

In  many  cases  of  extreme  suffering  which  occurred  during  our  absence 
on  journeys,  he  always  used  every  means  in  his  power  to  alleviate  the 
condition  of  the  patients.  He  gave  up  his  own  bed  to  those  who  were  sick 
and  frozen;  and  during  the  second  winter,  while  crowded  together  in  the 
little  cabin  of  the  Advance,  by  his  indomitable  energy  and  activity 
he  prevented  the  last  spark  of  hope  from  dying  out,  and,  under  Provi 
dence,  enabled  us,  by  obtaining  fresh  meat  from  the  Esquimaux,  to 
support  life  and  strength  until  the  season  opened  sufficiently  for  us  to 
escape. 

At  the  time  of  our  leaving  the  brig,  by  his  exertions  with  the  dogs 
and  Esquimaux  he  not  only  conveyed  the  sick  (six  in  number)  to  the 
open  water,  thereby  relieving  of  the  burden  those  who  worked  at  the 
boats,  but  carried  down  a  great  portion  of  the  provisions,  besides  return 
ing  to  the  ship  several  times  for  bread,  by  these  means  saving  the 
provisions  we  had  prepared  and  packed  for  the  journey.  During  our 
passage  through  the  ice  in  open  boats  on  that  perilous  journey  of  more 
than  eighty  days,  by  his  judicious  management  he  not  only  cheered  the 
dispirited  and  quieted  the  querulous  and  discontented,  but  he  so  dis 
pensed  the  provisions  as  to  give  no  one  the  slightest  cause  for  complaint, 
(a  most  difficult  operation,  as  any  one  who  has  had  to  do  with  starving 
men  can  testify.) 

Looking  back  upon  it  now,  after  a  lapse  of  more  than  two  years,  with 
a  shudder,  I  can  freely  say  that  it  was  to  his  careful  organization  at  the 


LETTER    FROM    AMOS    BONSALL.  275 


first,  and  his  cautious  progress  during  the  journey,  that  we  owe  our 
deliverance  and  restoration  to  our  homes. 

Restraining  a  party  of  men  on  a  homeward  journey,  after  undergoing 
the  perils  of  two  Arctic  winters,  cut  off  from  communication  with 
civilization  for  such  a  length  of  time,  is  a  much  more  difficult  matter 
than  urging  them  forward  at  a  ruinous  rate  would  be;  yet  often  it 
was  more  essential  to  our  safety  that  we  should  lie  still  and  recruit  our 
exhausted  energies,  and  await  the  favorable  movements  of  the  ice,  than 
exhaust  ourselves  in  fruitless  endeavors  to  surmount  difficulties  which, 
by  waiting  patiently  a  short  time,  would  be  removed  from  our  path. 

In  writing,  I  find  a  difficulty  in  avoiding  the  description  of  traits 
spoken  of  by  others,  and  perhaps  would  have  said  as  much  to  the  pur 
pose  if  I  had  stated  that  to  me  he  was  invariably  a  kind  friend,  an 
indulgent  commander,  and  always  manifested  a  warm  interest  in  my 
welfare  for  which  I  shall  be  forever  grateful. 

As  you  desired,  I  will  endeavor  to  give  you  some  account  of  the 
death  of  Jefferson  T.  Baker,  which,  occurring  as  it  did,  (he  being  the 
first  of  those  of  our  comrades  who  left  their  bones  to  bleach  on  the 
barren  coasts  of  Smith's  Sound,)  made  more  impression  upon  us  than 
any  subsequent  death ;  and,  without  considering  the  relations  which  he 
bore  to  me,  I  may  say  that  every  man  and  officer  in  the  ship  felt  as 
though  he  had  lost  a  brother.  It  is  unnecessary  to  speak  of  the  occur 
rences  preceding  his  death,  as  Dr.  Kane,  in  his  "Explorations,"  has 
given  them  to  the  world  in  a  manner  which  leaves  nothing  to  be  said  by 
me.  After  the  fearful  journey  which  we  made  to  rescue  those  of  our 
comrades  who  were  frozen  on  the  terrible  25th  of  March,  we  were  so 
exhausted,  both  mentally  and  physically,  that  it  required  several  days 
for  us  to  recover  our  wonted  tone  of  mind  and  bodily  habit,  so  violently 
deranged  by  exposure  and  hardship.  The  sick  men,  on  their  arrival 
at  the  brig,  were  kindly  cared  for  by  those  who  were  expecting  us ;  and 
every  thing  possible  to  alleviate  their  intense  suffering  was  done  by  our 
skilful  and  warm-hearted  surgeon,  Dr.  Hayes.  All  that  he  could  do 
for  us  in  the  emergency  was  done,  and  after  some  hours  of  rest  we  began 
to  be  comfortable  once  more.  Short  respite !  The  next  day  Dr.  Kane 
called  me  to  him,  and,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  told  me  his  fears  in  regard 
to  two  of  the  sufferers,  J.  T.  Baker  and  Pierre  Schubert,  as  their  wounds 
were  worse,  and  symptoms  of  aberration  of  mind  in  Baker's  case  were 
manifest. 

I  did  not  realize  the  frightful  result  for  some  hours,  and  then,  after  it 
broke  in  its  full  force  upon  me,  (that  there  was  no  hope  of  saving  him, 


276  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


and  that  he  must  die,)  it  was  necessary  to  keep  every  thing  as  quiet  as 
possible,  to  prevent  those  in  the  same  condition  in  the  other  berth  of  the 
cabin  (which  had  been  devoted  to  the  sick  and  wounded)  from  learning 
the  truth  so  long  as  it  could  be  concealed  from  them,  and  then  to 
prepare  them  for  the  sad  reality. 

Every  preparation  was  made  for  the  burial  which  could  be  done  in 
our  situation  j  and  the  next  day  we  carried  him  to  his  last  resting-place 
on  Observatory  Island,  and  placed  him  in  the  snow-house,  (where  one 
month  after  we  placed  Pierre  beside  him,)  the  state  of  the  ground  not 
permitting  us  to  make  a  grave  for  two  or  three  months  afterward. 

Jefferson  Baker  volunteered  as  a  member  of  the  Expedition,  and 
always  bore  out  the  character  which  he  had  gained  for  attention  to  his 
duty,  and  was  beloved  alike  by  the  officers  and  men  of  our  little  band. 
He  was  personally  known  to  Dr.  Kane  before  the  time  of  our  departure ; 
and  he  had  always  felt  more  deeply  interested  in  his  welfare  than  per 
haps  any  other  member  of  the  Expedition,  and  had  hoped  to  aid  him, 
on  our  return,  in  achieving  something  of  advantage  to  himself. 

Yours,  respectfully, 

A.  BONSALL, 

Mr.  G.  W.  CHILDS,  Oct.  13,  1857.  Upper  Darby,  Pa. 


LETTER  FROM  HENRY  GOODFELLOW, 

A   MEMBER   OF  DR.  KANE*S   EXPEDITION. 

DR.   KANE'S    SEA-SICKNESS — HIS     HABITS    ON    BOARD — FAILING    HEALTH — THE 

RESCUE-PARTY — A  BAD  RESTORATIVE GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  CREW ALLOWANCE 

OF  FOOD — DR.  KANE'S  ABHORRENCE  OF  CORPORAL  PUNISHMENT — HIS  ATTENTION 

TO  THE  SICK — HIS  SPIRIT  OF  SCIENTIFIC  INQUIRY HIS  SOCIAL  DEMEANOR  AND 

CONVERSATION — EXERCISE — DIETETICS. 

WHEN,  about  a  month  prior  to  the  sailing  of  the  Expedition,  I  saw  Dr 
Kane  on  his  return  to  Philadelphia  from  New  York,  where  he  had  been 
seriously  ill  for  several  weeks  with,  as  I  was  informed,  inflammatory  rheuma 
tism,  he  was  as  much  changed  in  appearance  as  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to 
be  when  convalescent.  Instead  of  the  former  restless  and  intense  vitality 
of  eye,  he  had  the  subdued  look  of  a  broken-down  invalid.  In  the 
interval  between  this  period  and  that  of  his  departure  he  had  recovered 


LETTER  FROM  HENRY  GOODFELLOW.     277 


in  a  great  degree  the  tone  of  his  bearing  j  but  he  was  far  from  being 
either  well  or  vigorous. 

He  had  always  been  subject  to  sea-sickness  in  a  very  acute  and  dis 
tressing  form,  manifesting  itself  in  a  constant  retching  without  power  to 
obtain  relief,  and  giddiness,  which  a  comparatively  slight  roughness  of 
the  sea — for  instance,  a  four  or  five  knot  breeze — invariably  brought  to 
him,  and  which  scarcely  abated  in  severity  through  the  longest  voyage  : 
it  was  therefore  infinitely  worse  than  the  short,  violent,  and  spasmodic 
form. 

The  occurrence  of  this  malady  increased  his  general  debility,  but  did 
not  prevent  his  frequent  presence  and  activity  on  deck.  He  superin 
tended  the  work  upon  the  sledge  apparatus  and  equipments,  and  inte 
rested  himself  in  the  course  and  speed  of  the  brig. 

He  was  fond,  on  fine  afternoons  when  the  sun  shone  out,  of 
reclining  on  a  large  tarpaulin-covered  box  on  the  quarterdeck,  where, 
wrapped  in  a  buffalo-robe,  he  would  write  his  journal  or  watch  the 
working  of  the  ship,  and  seem  to  forget  his  exhausted  frame.  At  night 
he  would  suddenly  appear  over  the  combings  of  the  cabin  companion- 
way,  dressed  in  his  gown  of  cashmere,  lined  with  the  wool  of  the  fo3tal 
lamb,  a  favorite  garment  which  he  had  received  from  a  Hindoo  priest. 
After  inquiring  the  course  and  examining  the  log,  and  asking  whether 
more  sail  could  not  be  carried,  he  would  return  to  his  bunk,  but  not 
always  to  sleep.  The  recorder  of  the  watch,  descending  to  write  the 
hourly  observations,  would  generally  be  met  by  an  inquiry  from  him. 

Indeed,  throughout  the  entire  cruise  he  seldom  fell  asleep  until  late  in 
the  morning,  and  four  or  five  hours  was  in  general  his  maximum  of  rest. 
His  sleep,  too,  was  very  light.  It  was  scarcely  ever  necessary  to  more 
than  utter  his  name  to  make  him  open  his  eyes ;  and  if  it  was  accident 
ally  mentioned  in  the  cabin,  within  hearing  of  his  bunk,  he  would  awake 
immediately. 

As  we  advanced  along  the  coast  of  Greenland,  he  seemed  stronger, 
and  underwent  the  exposure  belonging  to  boating  among  the  settlements 
with  the  alacrity  of  a  well  man,  without  evincing  any  sign  of  ill  health, 
except  a  more  than  his  usual  sensitiveness  to  cold,  making  him  require 
more  clothing  than  he  would  otherwise  have  wanted, — for  he  seemed  to 
be  in  need  of  a  heat-making  power. 

"When  we  reached  the  waters  of  Smith's  Sound,  Dr.  Kane  spent 
much  of  his  jtime  in  open  boat,  looking  for  harbors, — frequently,  too, 
after  a  previous  long  exposure  of  himself  in  the  crow's  nest.  But 
a  marked  change  for  the  worse  took  place  about  this  time, — perhaps 


278  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


owing  to  the  excessive  exertion, — and  his  health  seemed  very  unpromising 
for  an  Arctic  winter.  In  spite  of  it,  he  made  his  fall-journey  to  investi 
gate  the  feasibility  of  sledging  over  the  ice  beyond.  He  returned  quite 
broken  down,  but  thoroughly  persuaded  that  it  was  his  duty  to  remain, 
notwithstanding  the  almost  impassable  character  of  the  ice  around  us, 
and  to  make  an  attempt  to  travel  along  the  somewhat  better  paths  he 
had  reconnoitred. 

All  winter,  though  he  never  relaxed  or  intermitted  his  rigid  personal 
supervision  of  the  ship's  affairs,  it  was  only  too  evident  that  he  was 
struggling  with  disease.  As  well  as  I  can  describe  his  case,  his  circu 
lation  was  deficient :  his  face  and  hands  would  be  swollen, — the  capil 
lary  action  being  very  sluggish.  Sometimes  he  required  Mr.  Morton's 
assistance  to  enable  him  to  rise  j  but,  once  on  his  legs,  he  would  go 
about  as  if  he  were  not  seriously  ailing,  making  some  facetious  remark 
as  he  stretched  out  his  swollen  hands,  or  glanced  in  his  glass  at  his  face. 
His  only  allusions  to  his  ailments  were  in  a  tone  of  pleasantry  or  gayly- 
affected  complaint. 

A  slight  apparent  improvement  was  visible  in  his  health  about  the 
date  of  the  departure  of  the  first  party,  soon  after  the  return  of  the  sun 
in  1854.  He  took  daily  drives  with  the  dogs,  whom  he  was  training ; 
but  his  condition  was  any  thing  but  suitable  for  the  prodigious  exertion 
of  the  rescue-party;  and  the  training  which  he  had  had,  since  the  light 
returned,  of  perhaps  a  dozen  drives  and  as  many  walks,  together  with 
light  daily  exercise, — these  were  altogether  but  a  poor  preparative  for  a 
forced  march  of  forty  miles  over  the  roughest  possible  ice  at  a  tempera 
ture  of  from  40°  to  50°  below  zero. 

As  is  well  known,  in  less  than  three  hours  after  the  messengers,  breath 
less  and  almost  crazy  with  cold  and  fatigue,  came  to  the  brig,  the 
heroic  leader  started  out  with  a  party  of  eight  men,  including  Ohlsen, 
whose  senses  were  bewildered  by  having  had  but  an  hour  or  two  of  rest 
from  the  journey,  to  enter  the  trackless  frozen  sea.  Every  man  on  board 
accompanied  him,  except  the  surgeon,  one  in  the  cabin  with  a  leg  drawn 
up  with  scurvy,  two  men  whose  condition  was  unfit  for  a  sledge-journey, 
and  two  out  of  the  three  returned  party, — making  six  left  behind. 
Despatch  was  all-important.  But  they  had  to  drag  a  sledge  laden 
with  a  tent  and  restoratives,  and,  part  of  the  way,  their  exhausted 
guide.  The  returned  party,  with  nothing  to  carry  but  one  rifle,  had 
reached  the  ship  in  one  march;  but  they  had  known  no  alternative  except- 
to  perish  in  the  snow. 

It  was  a  subject  of  melancholy  speculation  in  the  cabin  among  those 


LETTER    FROM    HENRY    GOODFELLOW.  279 


who  remained,  as  to  whether  the  tent  could  be  reached  in  a  single  march. 
The  returned  travellers  thought  it  utterly  impossible.  There  was  a 
different  opinion  entertained  with  equal  strength,  which  was  borne  out 
by  the  result. 

The  history  of  that  party  has  already  been  told.  It  was  not  a  very 
good  discipline  for  a  sick  man  who  looked  forward  to  starting  out  again, 
at  a  temperature  below  zero,  a  month  later.  The  wear  and  tear  of  hos 
pital,  amputations,  and  the  counteracting  of  the  depressing  effect  of 
death,  together  with  the  actual  privation  arising  from  the  recent  reduc 
tion  of  coal  to  an  allowance  only  sufficient  for  one  fire,  and  an  occasional 
extra  one, — all  taxed  to  the  utmost  the  nervous  system  of  the  com 
mander,  and  called  for  a  rare  union  of  firmness  with  gentleness. 

Throughout  the  entire  cruise  the  government  of  the  crew  was  truly 
benign.  On  board  ship,  the  food — or  grub,  as  it  is  universally  called 
at  sea — is  a  much  more  important  matter  than  it  is  on  shore.  Food 
and  drink,  with  tobacco,  stand  in  the  place  of  all  other  recreations  and 
pleasures  for  the  sailor,  and  form  the  great  element  in  Jack's  estimate 
of  a  ship.  After  a  hard  exposure,  while  working  in  the  cold,  a  mere  cup 
of  coffee  has  a  taste  and  value  which  it  would  be  difficult  for  one  whose  lot 
has  always  been  a  life  of  ease  to  associate  with  such  an  apparent  trifle. 

On  board  the  Advance,  the  allowance  to  the  crew  was  varied  and 
liberal  to  a  degree  seldom  known  in  ships.  There  was  very  little  differ 
ence  between  the  cabin-table  and  the  forecastle-mess.  Sugar  and  butter 
of  excellent  quality  were  furnished  almost  ad  libitum.  After  we  had 
gone  into  winter- quarters,  the  daily  fare  was  absolutely  the  same  at 
both  ends  of  the  ship,  in  substantial  materials,  the  only  difference 
being  the  few  trifling  stores  purchased  by  the  cabin-mess,  such  as  Wor 
cester  sauce,  olive-oil,  figs,  &c.  The  dinner  of  the  men  was  prepared 
chiefly  by  the  cabin-steward,  and  consisted  of  soup,  meat,  and  dessert- 
courses.  If  there  occurred  any  dissatisfaction, — and  no  sybarite  can  be 
more  critical  than  the  sailor, — the  dinner  was  inspected  by  the  first 
officers,  accompanied  by  a  culinary  staff  of  cook  and  steward,  or  by  the 
commander,  who  always  invited  the  men  to  make  their  complaints  to 
him  freely.  The  second  winter,  as  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  you, 
we  had  but  one  mess. 

It  was  remarked  more  than  once  by  Dr.  Kane  that  the  crew  in  an 
Arctic  expedition  were  entitled  to  a  great  deal  of  indulgence,  as  they 
bore  their  full  share  of  the  work  and  hardship,  but  by  no  means  received 
an  equal  share  of  the  laurels,  and  could  not  be  expected  to  feel  quite  the 
same  zeal  that  the  officers  did. 


280  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


He  could  be  severe  when  necessary.  He  was  always  firm,  but  desired 
to  be  lenient.  The  ability  in  a  commander  to  gratify  a  kindly  disposi 
tion  must  depend  in  a  great  measure  upon  the  character  and  behavior 
of  the  crew  themselves.  But,  unfortunately,  it  does  not  require  a  very 
wide  acquaintance  with  human  nature  to  know  that  there  are  men  who  are 
at  times,  and  some  who  seem  always,  utterly  insensible  to  any  arguments 
or  appeals  except  those  of  fear  and  force.  It  was  not  until  repeated 
admonition  and  expostulation,  and  appeals  to  the  manly  instinct  of  the 
individual,  had  failed,  and  until  a  second  or  third  offence  was  committed, 
that  even  so  mild  a  punishment  as  confinement  was  resorted  to;  and 
this  means  was  adopted  without  the  accessory  of  placing  a  man  in  a  bolt- 
upright  posture,  or  mast-heading  him,  as  it  is  called  when  a  man  is  com 
pelled  to  hang  on  for  a  long  time  in  the  rigging, — punishments  which 
may  all  be  very  well  sometimes,  but  which  were  excluded  from  Dr. 
Kane's  scheme  of  government.  This  mercy  was  at  the  expense  of  the 
loss  of  the  prisoner's  service  to  the  always  short-handed  crew.  When 
instant  coercion  was  necessary  in  the  extremity  of  circumstances,  Dr. 
Kane  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  a  proper  course. 

The  idea  of  tying  a  man  up  to  gratings  and  flogging  him,  as 
practised  in  the  American  marine  before  the  abolition  of  corporal 
punishment  in  the  navy  by  act  of  Congress,  was  revolting  to  every 
sentiment  of  his  soul;  and,  when  compelled  to  witness  punishment 
during  his  naval  career,  he  always  had  stood  by  in  abhorrence.  He  had 
been  an  earnest  advocate  of  reform  in  this  matter,  and  always  freely 
expressed  his  detestation  of  the  practice  of  corporal  punishment. 

In  the  control  of  others,  Dr.  Kane  evidently  exercised  a  painful  con 
scientiousness.  His  actions  were  subjected  to  severe  self-scrutiny. 

His  generosity  led  him  to  a  peculiar  demeanor  toward  the  Danish  sub 
jects  in  the  party.  He  regarded  Petersen  (the  interpreter)  in  the  light  of 
a  guest,  and  sought  to  maintain  the  amenities  of  that  relation  in  his  inter 
course  with  him,  while  he  made  it  a  pretext  to  extend  to  him  all  the 
indulgences  and  attentions  within  his  power.  Poor  Hans  he  looked 
upon  as  his  own  personal  charge,  and  humored  his  whims  and  wishes  as 
he  might  have  done  a  child's. 

His  consideration  for  the  entire  crew  was  indeed  beneficent.  He 
made  constant  personal  inspections  of  the  men's  quarters,  and  kind  indi 
vidual  inquiries  respecting  their  welfare, — sought  to  promote  their  amuse 
ment  and  provide  for  their  instruction.  The  cabin-library  was  open  to 
them,  and  instruction  in  mathematics,  &c.  offered.  His  care  for  the 
sick  was  delicate,  unremitting,  and  constant.  He  never  omitted,  so  long 


LETTEK  FROM  HENRY  GOODFELLOW.     281 


as  he  could  move,  his  round  of  visits  or  relaxed  in  his  efforts  to  invent 
some  dish  out  of  the  reduced  resources  which  might  be  palatable  to  them. 
That  he  was  the  nurse  as  well  as  physician  of  almost  the  entire  ship's  com 
pany  at  one  time  or  another  is  well  known  ;  but  how  well  he  performed 
the  duty  can  only  be  known  to  those  who  were  the  recipients  or  wit 
nesses  of  his  benevolent  actions.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  him  to 
send  away  some  savory  dish  of  the  intestines  of  a  ptarmigan,  which 
the  steward  had  cooked  with  artistic  skill  and  offered  to  him  in  a  silent 
night-watch,  and,  thus  refusing  it;  to  direct  it  to  be  given  to  some  sick 
comrade  who  could  relish  it. 

The  paramount  idea  of  Dr.  Kane  was  the  search  for  Sir  John  Franklin. 
A  religious  anxiety  to  do  something  to  promote  discovery  bearing  upon 
the  whereabouts  of  the  lost  sailor  was  his  rufcig  passion  as  a  com 
mander.  Nothing  but  the  most  earnest  desire  to  conduct  discovery  in 
person  could  have  prevailed  upon  him  to  take  the  field  in  April,  in  his 
state  of  health.  The  result  must  almost  have  been  foreseen  by  himself; 
and  he  certainly  had  strong  forebodings  of  it.  He  was  brought  back 
delirious  and  very  ill ;  but  the  disease  seemed  to  have  reached  its  crisis  on 
his  return  to  the  brig,  and  soon  he  began  to  mend  apace. 

I  think  it  was  in  the  highest  -  degree  fortunate  that  he  undertook  the 
adventurous  trip  in  an  attempt  to  reach  the  British  station  at  Beechey 
Island,  as  nothing  within  our  reach  could  have  so  effectually  recruited 
his  health  as  the  fresh  game,  eggs,  and  cochlearia,  and  the  summer  sea- 
breeze. 

To  this  voyage  he  owed  that  recuperation  which  made  him  a  sounder 
man  on  his  return  than  he  had  been  before  during  the  cruise,  or  at 
least  from  the  setting  in  of  the  first  winter. 

At  the  inevitable  approach  of  a  second  winter,  Dr.  Kane  knew  full 
well  the  terrible  perils  from  scurvy  that  it  threatened ;  but  he  was  only 
nerved  to  stronger  effort,  and  worked  with  trebled  energy.  In  com 
bating  the  scurvy  in  himself  and  others,  providing  for  the  difficult 
economy  of  the  ship,  and  giving  the  assistance  of  his  own  hands  in  all 
its.  labors,  his  nervous  system  was  wrought  to  a  supernatural  tension ; 
and,  when  we  remember  the  contrivance,  invention,  and  mental  labor 
required  for  providing  the  appointments  of  the  sledges  and  boats  of  that 
remarkable  journey,  and  his  exposed  sledge- travel,  the  mind  is  oppressed 
in  the  attempt  to  appreciate  his  immense  power  of  endurance.  To  his 
vigilant  foresight  and  minutely-circumspect  providence, — certainly  only 
the  more  remarkable  if  acquired, — by  which  all  the  wants  and  con 
tingencies  of  the  journey  were  provided  for,  no  less  than  to  his  vigilance 


282  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


and  decisive  judgment  and  his  genius  for  prompt  action  or  combination, 
the  success  of  that  remarkable  boat-journey  was  undoubtedly  due. 

During  my  sojourn  for  ten  days  at  Anoatok  I  had  a  good  opportunity 
of  observing  his  unwearied  diligence  in  sledging  between  the  boats,  Etah, 
the  brig,  and  Anoatok,  conveying  flesh  to  the  boats  and  to  our  hut  from 
Etah,  and  bread  and  baked  flour  from  the  ship,  as  well  as  his  unfailing, 
kind  consideration  for  the  sick  at  a  time  when  all  his  energies  might 
have  been  taxed  by  the  superintendence  of  the  efforts  of  the  main  party 
for  escape.  From  the  ship  to  the  hut  and  back  was  no  unusual  journey 
for  him, — a  distance  of  fifty  or  sixty  miles.  When  he  brought  me  down 
from  the  ship  with  him,  notwithstanding  his  labor  in  driving  and  alter 
nately  with  me  running  beside  the  sledge  to  lighten  the  weight,  and 
lifting  the  sledge  ove$  high  hummocks,  or  running  before  the  dogs  to 
keep  them  in  the  track,  he  started  on  his  return  without  sleep.  This 
labor  kept  up  for  a  week  involves  no  trifling  exertion. 

The  next  most  conspicuous  trait  in  our  commander  was  his  indefati 
gable  scientific  research.  He  never  took  a  walk,  much  less  made  a 
journey, — not  even  the  desperate  march  for  the  relief  of  the  first  party, 
— without  looking  intelligently  at  the  ice,  the  land,  the  atmosphere,  the 
effect  of  the  temperature  on  the  men,  and  obtaining  results  for  his  note 
book.  It  may  be  some  proof  of  his  sanguine  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
safety  of  the  party  during  the  most  trying  periods,  that,  while  he  was  ever 
disposed  to  cheer  and  encourage  the  spirits  of  those  around  him,  at  the 
same  time  he  did  not  relax  in  the  prosecution  of  his  journals  and  registers. 

His  private  journal  was  regularly  written  by  his  own  hand  at  the  close 
of  each  day;  or,  if  unavoidably  postponed  a  few  days,  it  was  brought  up 
at  the  earliest  practicable  moment.  He  reviewed  the  log  in  the  after 
noon,  and  generally  added  some  notes  of  his  own  to  the  remarks  of  the 
watch-  officer. 

His  sketches  were  nearly  all  made  on  the  spot, — the  more  elaborate 
of  them  finished  in  the  cabin.  They  bear,  I  think,  an  intrinsic  truthful 
ness  in  their  appearance  which  speaks  for  itself.  They  certainly  far 
surpass  any  illustrations  of  Arctic  scenery  which  I  have  ever  seen. 
The  landscapes  are  as  faultless  for  general  inspection  as  photographs.  It 
is  difficult  to  conceive  that  the  picture  of  Sylvia  Headland  and  the  Floe 
is  not  engraved  from  a  photograph.  The  portraits  of  the  Esquimaux  are 
equally  excellent.  During  the  first  winter  Dr.  Kane  frequently  occupied 
himself  with  painting  in  oil ;  but,  during  the  long  night  of  the  second, 
chart-making  was  substituted,  as  being  more  in  keeping  with  the  lack 
of  conveniences. 


LETTER  FROM  HENRY  GOODFELLOW.     283 


The  social  demeanor  of  our  commander  was  cheerful  and  affable,  even 
gay.  He  did  his  best  to  devise  recreations  and  promote  the  most  har 
monious  social  intercourse.  He  patronized  the  ship's  newspaper,  edited 
the  first  number,  and  executed  the  vignette  and  caption  with  artistic 
taste.  The  best  of  its  articles  were  by  him. 

It  was  his  usual  practice  to  play  a  game  or  two  of  chess  after  supper, 
the  first  winter.  Cards  were  permitted  only  on  Wednesday  and  Satur 
day  evenings.  This  rule  was  adopted  to  prevent  too  great  a  devotion  to 
the  fascinating  pasteboards. 

In  conversation,  Dr.  Kane  was  all  that  might  have  been  expected 
from  his  eventful  career  and  varied  attainments.  He  seldom  referred 
to  his  personal  adventures,  and,  when  he  did,  it  was  with  delicate 
reserve;  but  his  descriptive  powers  were  frequently  employed  for  the 
entertainment  of  the  little  circle  around  him. 

He  made  a  great  point  of  urging  the  use  of  lime-juice  and  the  other 
anti-scorbutics,  and  habitual  exercise,  upon  the  officers,  and  the  keeping 
up  of  a  cheerful  tone  of  mind.  His  cheerfulness,  composure,  and 
self-command  never  nagged  at  the  worst  period.  His  own  custom  of 
exercise  was  regular  and  systematic.  He  frequently  took  long  walks  by 
moonlight,  inviting  one  or  two  of  the  mess.  One  bitter  cold  evening  in 
the  middle  of  the  first  winter,  after  expatiating  upon  the  importance  of 
exercise,  he  playfully  challenged  the  first  officer,  Mr.  Brooks,  to  go  with 
him  and  build  a  fox-trap  at  the  head  of  a  fiord,  two  or  three  miles  off. 
Mr.  Brooks  accepted  the  challenge,  and  to  the  question,  "But  are  you  in 
earnest,  Brooks?"  answered  "Yes,  by  George,  I  am,  sir,"  with  an 
earnestness  not  to  be  mistaken,  and  specially  characteristic  of  the  stal 
wart  boatswain.  They  went  and  accomplished  their  purpose.  But 
although  Mr.  Brooks  was  the  largest  and  perhaps  the  most  powerful 
man  belonging  to  the  Expedition,  he  ever  afterward  declined  accepting 
a  similar  challenge  from  his  commander,  alleging  that  Dr.  Kane's  powers 
of  endurance  far  exceeded  his  own. 

Dr.  Kane's  dietetic  habits  were  the  triumph  of  principle  and  will 
over  nature.  His  palate  was  delicate ;  yet  he  accustomed  himself  to  eat 
puppies  and  rats,  as  he  had  always  before  accustomed  himself  to  the  diet 
of  the  country  in  which  he  sojourned.  He  sometimes  remarked  that  he 
had  eaten  of  almost  every  animal  which  is  used  as  food  in  the  various 
countries  through  which  he  had  travelled.  The  advantage  of  being  able 
to  overcome  one's  repugnance  to  the  flesh  of  proscribed  animals  is  very 
evident  to  any  one  who  has  been  in  situations  making  its  use  an  impera 
tive  necessity.  When  our  Expedition  arrived  in  Greenland,  not  more 


284  ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


than  one-third  or  one-fourth  of  the  ship's  company  could  eat  seal-meat 
with  any  satisfaction ;  and,  even  till  the  close  of  the  cruise,  some  of  our 
party  ate  their  raw  walrus  or  seal  meat  with  little  zest. 

Even  during  the  second  winter,  with  all  its  squalid  discomfort  and 
privation,  Dr.  Kane's  thoughts  would  revert  to  the  Northern  regions  of 
search.  His  desire  to  look  upon  the  open  water  there  was  unabated ; 
and,  when  Petersen  returned  from  the  south,  in  December,  1854, 
he  questioned  him  closely  respecting  the  possibility  of  obtaining 
dogs.  When  afterward  he  had  obtained  them,  he  confidently  hoped  to 
pass  the  limits  of  the  farthest  explorations  of  the  previous  summer ; 
but  the  defection  of  Hans  dashed  these  hopes  to  the  ground.  A 
sight  of  the  Great  Glacier  of  Humboldt  was  sufficient  reward  for  two 
days'  absence  from  the  brig.  He  still  clung  to  the  hope  of  passing  the 
glacier,  and  he  started  on  a  fine  morning  in  March  or  April,  while  active 
preparations  for  escape  were  going  on,  accompanied  by  Morton ;  but  this 
time  the  team  of  dogs  was  unequal  to  the  task,  and  the  sledge  returned, 
I  believe,  the  same  evening. 

HENRY  G ODDFELLOW. 

PHILADELPHIA,  December  7,  1857. 


%  to  J)r, 


REPORT 


OF    THE 


JOINT    COMMITTEE 


APPOINTED     TO 


RECEIVE   THE  REMAINS  AND   CONDUCT   THE 
OBSEQUIES 


OF    THE    LATE 


PHILADELPHIA,  April  7,  1857. 
HON.  JOSEPH  R.  CHANDLER. 

DEAR  SIR  : — It  has  seemed  to  the  gentlemen  composing  the  Committees  of  the 
City  Councils  and  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  which  have  had  the  direction 
of  the  public  solemnities  attending  the  funeral  of  the  late  Dr.  Kane,  that  a  report 
or  narrative  of  these  solemnities  should  be  written  and  preserved. 

It  has  been  thought  that  this  is  due  to  the  constituencies  of  the  respective 
Committees  which  have  united  in  directing  them,  and  it  has  also  been  thought 
that  thus  an  enduring  record  may  be  preserved  of  those  remarkable  and  im 
pressive  demonstrations  of  public  respect  which  attended  the  passage  to  the 
tomb  of  the  remains  of  a  citizen  so  gifted  and  so  renowned. 

I  have  been  instructed  to  request  you  to  prepare  this  narrative,  and  I  trust 
that  it  jfiH;  comport  with  your  feelings  and  your  duties  to  comply  with  the 
wishes  which  I  have  much  satisfaction  in  conveying  to  you. 

I  am,  dear  sir, 

Truly,  yours, 

THEODORE  CUTLER, 
Chairman  Committee  of  Councils. 


I 


PHILADELPHIA,  April  27,  1857. 
THEODORE  CUTLER,  Esq. 

DEAR  SIR: — In  compliance  with  the  request  which  your  favor  of  the  7th 
instant  has  conveyed  to  me,  I  have  the  honor  to  present  a  report  of  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  Joint  Committee  appointed  to  receive  the  remains  and  conduct  the 
obsequies  of  the  late  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane.  All  of  us  who  united  in  those 
arrangements  must  feel  how  eminently  due  they  were  to  the  deceased,  and  yet 
how  feeble  an  expression  were  they  of  the  deep  feeling  of  respect  and  regret 
entertained  by  our  fellow-citizens  for  Dr.  Kane. 

Very  truly,  yours, 

JOSEPH  R.  CHANDLER, 
Chairman  of  the  Joint  Committee. 


286 


0(  tlt^ 


OF 


DR.  ELISHA  KENT  KANE. 


To  ordinary  record  we  may  safely  trust  the  ordinary  occurrence  of  the 
day;  and  the  chroniclers  of  passing  events  will  not  fail  to  do  justice  to 
whatever  is  deemed  worthy  of  commemoration.  But  the  record  of 
unusual  occurrences,  it  may  be  admitted,  is  entitled  to  more  than  the 
ordinary  means  of  perpetuation,  and  especially  when  public  demonstra 
tions  denote  a  full  appreciation  of  great  and  good  acts.  The  public 
press  reflects,  with  wonderful  accuracy,  ordinary  ard  extraordinary  pro 
ceedings  which  daily  take  place  ;  but,  with  a  firle'ity  that  constitutes  its 
excellence  and  its  power,  that  press  reflects  all  t.Jke,  and  the  perfection 
of  the  whole  seems  to  render  it  difficult  to  contemplate  with  desirable 
abstraction  any  single  event  which  it  presents.  There  are  circumstances, 
too,  which  render  it  proper  to  make  a  speciality  of  some  extraordinary 
demonstration,  not  merely  to  augment  the  honors  bestowed  upon  the 
person  or  fame  of  a  distinguished  individual,  but  to  do  justice  to  the 
purity  and  correctness  of  public  sentiment  in  which  those  honors  origi 
nated,  and  by  which  they  were  made  the  reward  and  stimulus  to  distin 
guished  public  virtue. 

The  deep  and  general  interest  manifested  in  the  proceedings  relative 
to  the  honorable  reception  of  the  remains  of  the  late  Dr.  Elisha  Kent 
Kane,  and  in  the  solemn  public  obsequies  which  followed,  renders  it 
appropriate  that  those  to  whom  was  delegated  the  duty  of  arranging 
and  conducting  those  ceremonies  should  make  public  report  of  the 
origin  of  their  power  and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  exercised;  and 
the  following  statement  of  the  proceedings  of  the  several  bodies  which 
were  represented  in  the  "  Committee  of  Arrangements"  will  show  the 
feelings  in  which  the  solemnities  originated  in  this  city,  and  the  senti 
ment  which  it  was  the  duty  of  the  several  committees  in  their  joint  action 

to  illustrate. 

287 


288  DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


CITY  COUNCILS. 

At  a  regular  meeting  of  the  City  Councils  of  Philadelphia,  held  Feb 
ruary  26,  1857,  Mr.  Cuyler,  in  Select  Council,  upon  unanimous  leave, 
submitted  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions,  prefacing  them  with 
the  following  remarks  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  : — I  beg  leave  to  ask  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
Chamber  to  an  interruption  of  its  accustomed  duties,  for  the  purpose  of 
offering  a  preamble  and  resolutions.  They  are  expressive  of  the  high 
sense  the  city  of  Philadelphia  entertains  of  the  glory  and  renown  which 
attend  the  achievements  of  one  of  the  noblest  of  her  sons  in  the  cause 
of  science  and  of  humanity ;  and,  alas !  they  are  expressive,  too,  of  her 
sadness  at  his  early  death,  and  of  her  desire  to  do  honor  to  his  memory. 
The  death  of  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane  has  added  another  name  to  that  list 
of  great  and  noble  men,  born  among  us,  whose  cherished  memories 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  places  among  her  crown  jewels. 

It  has  happened  to  us,  sir,  often  before,  that  we  have  been  called  upon 
to  mourn  the  death  of  citizens  who  have  won  for  themselves  a  proud 
distinction,  sometimes  in  military  affairs,  and  sometimes  in  statesman 
ship  or  diplomacy,  or  perhaps  in  the  higher  walks  of  professional  life } 
but  not  before  this,  within  my  recollection,  has  it  happened  to  us,  as  in 
this  instance,  where  he,  whose  body  is  now  borne  hither  that  his  ashes 
may  mingle  with  his  native  soil,  was  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of  science 
and  of  humanity.  I  do  not  propose,  sir,  to  speak  of  the  career  of  Dr. 
Kane.  The  great  events  of  his  life  are  known  to  all  of  us.  They 
were  wrought  out  by  the  high  faith  and  the  noble  impulses  of  a  pure 
heart  and  an  earnest  nature.  These  steeled  his  heart  to  the  delights  of 
life,  when  the  sad  cry  of  suffering  humanity  called  him  to  deeds  of  noble 
daring.  These  raised  his  feeble  frame  above  bodily  weakness,  and 
enabled  him  to  triumph  over  cold  and  hunger,  and  kept  bright  and 
warm  within  his  breast  the  flame  of  pure  humanity  amidst  the  never- 
melting  ice  of  Polar  seas  and  the  dreary  horrors  of  an  Arctic  winter. 

Mr.  President,  there  is  something  due  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
to  the  memory  of  such  a  man.  He  whose  eventful  life  was  carried 
through  so  many  strange  vicissitudes  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe  will 
find  at  last  in  death  that  repose  which  seems  in  life  to  have  been  denied 
him  here  among  us.  Other  cities  through  which  his  remains  have  been 
carried  on  their  journey  toward  this  their  place  of  burial  have  received 
them  with  appropriate  honors.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  city  of  Phila 
delphia  will  desire  to  bestow  upon  them  also  her  tribute  of  respect,  and 


OBSEQUIES    OF  289 


will  feel  a  melancholy  satisfaction  in  receiving  and  committing  to  the 
tomb  the  remains  of  one  of  her  sons,  who  has  in  his  lifetime  shed  so 
much  of  lustre  upon  her  annals. 

The  resolutions  I  offer,  sir,  are  expressive  of  these  sentiments,  and  I 
ask  of  the  clerk  that  he  will  be  kind  enough  to  read  them. 

Whereas,  The  body  of  the  late  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  of  Philadel 
phia,  who  died  in  a  foreign  country  from  disease,  contracted  or  enhanced 
by  exposure  to  the  severity  of  an  Arctic  climate,  during  a  journey 
prompted  by  a  high-toned  and  chivalric  feeling  of  philanthropy,  and 
sanctioned  by  the  Government  of  our  Union,  is  on  its  way  to  his  native 
city  for  the  purpose  of  interment,  and  it  seems  to  be  fitting  that  some 
expression  should  be  uttered  by  the  representatives  of  the  citizens  of 
Philadelphia,  indicative  of  their  sense  of  the  great  merit  of  their  deceased 
fellow-citizen,  and  of  the  renown  and  glory  which  have  attached  to  the 
entire  country  from  his  admirable  achievements  in  the  cause  of  science 
and  humanity,  an  expression  which  is  responsive  to  similar  sentiments 
coming  from  various  parts  of  the  Union  :  Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  city  of  Philadelphia  will  retain  in  ever-grateful 
memory  the  noble  services  of  Dr.  Kane  in  the  cause  of  science  and 
humanity,  which  have  reflected  glory  and  renown  upon  his  native  city, 
and  upon  the  whole  country. 

Resolved,  By  the  Select  and  Common  Council  of  the  City  of  Philadel 
phia,  that  a  joint  special  Committee  of  five  members  of  each  Chamber 
of  Councils  be  appointed,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  cause  such  measures 
to  be  taken  upon  the  arrival  of  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  as  will  comport 
with  the  dignity  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  be  a  fitting  testimonial 
of  her  respect  for  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane. 

[The  above  resolutions  were  adopted  by  both  Chambers  and  approved 
by  the  Mayor,  February  27, 1857.] 

The  following  message  was  received  from  Mayor  YAUX  on  the  same 
subject: — 

To  the  President  and  Members  of  the  Select  Council. 
GENTLEMEN  : — Information  has  been  received  in  this  city  that  Elisha 
Kent  Kane  departed  this  life  at  Havana,  and  that  his  remains  are  on  the 
way  to  the  place  of  his  birth  for  the  purpose  of  burial.  A  citizen  of  Phila 
delphia  has  made  a  sacrifice  of  his  life  in  a  service  dedicated  to  philan 
thropy  and  science.  To  honor  the  memory  of  such  a  man  is  worthy 
of  an  enlightened  community.  *In  order  that  the  City  Councils  may 

19 


290  DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


have  an  opportunity  to  take  such  action  on  the  subject  as  to  them  shall 
seem  appropriate,  I  have  considered  it  proper  to  address  them  this  com 
munication.  RICHARD  VAUX. 

Mr.  Perkins  rose  to  second  the  resolutions,  and  said : — I  know  nothing, 
sir,  I  can  say  in  relation  to  the  resolutions  which  have  just  been  offered, 
and  which  I  rise  with  some  unction  to  second,  that  has  not  already  been 
better  expressed ;  and  yet,  sir,  I  cannot  but  feel  I  owe  it  to  the  high 
esteem  and  regard  I  have  ever  felt  for  that  distinguished  man,  to  offer 
my  humble  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Dr.  Kane  graduated  at  our  University,  I  think,  in  1843,  as  a  physician, 
but  very  soon  extended  his  usefulness  far  beyond  the  usual  sphere  of  an 
ordinary  physician,  and  in  the  short  space  of  fourteen  years  has  built 
up  for  himself  and  for  his  country  a  world- wide  reputation  which  three 
score  years  and  ten  have  rarely  attained  :  this  is  the  condensation  of 
manly  ambition ;  and  I  feel  pride  in  casting  my  feeble  effort  to  add 
something  to  that  respect  and  regard  which,  as  a  fellow-citizen  and 
fellow-countryman,  are  so  justly  his  due.  I  trust  the  resolutions  will  be 
unanimously  adopted. 

In  the  Common  Council,  February  26,  1857,  Mr.  Holman  offered  the 
following,  which  were  adopted  previous  to  the  resolutions  of  Select 
Council  being  introduced  into  that  chamber : — 

Mr.  Holman,  on  leave  granted,  offered  the  following : — 

Whereas,  We  have  heard  with  unfeigned  regret  of  the  death  of  Dr. 
Elisha  Kent  Kane,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  whose  brilliant  career,  as  an 
officer  and  explorer,  has  rendered  his  name  dear  to  every  American  citizen ; 

And  whereas,  The  character  of  Dr.  Kane,  his  indomitable  courage, 
his  untiring  zeal,  his  enthusiastic  love  of  science,  and  his  sympathy  for 
the  suffering,  have  embalmed  his  memory  in  the  hearts  of  all  who  can 
appreciate  the  noblest  and  loftiest  qualities  of  human  nature  :  Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane  was  not  only  an  honor  to  this 
city,  but  to  the  nation  at  large,  and  that  his  genius,  his  toils,  his  self- 
denial,  his  patience,  and  his  perseverance  throughout  a  most  arduous 
career  of  duty  and  philanthropy,  are  calculated  to  adorn  the  American 
character. 

Resolved,  That  we  sincerely  condole  with  his  bereaved  relatives  and 
friends,  and  that  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  tendered  to  his  afflicted 
family. 

Mr.  Henry  offered  the  following  joint  resolution  : — 

Resolved,  By  the  Select  and  Common  Councils  of  the  City  of  Phila- 


OBSEQUIES  OF  291 


delphia,  that  a  joint  special  Committee  of  five  members  of  each  Chamber 
of  Councils  be  appointed,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  cause  such  measures 
to  be  taken  upon  the  arrival  of  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  in  this  city,  as 
will  comport  with  the  dignity  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  be  a 
fitting  testimonial  of  her  respect  for  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane. 

The  joint  special  Committee  appointed  under  the  above  resolutions  is 
as  follows : — 

Select  Council. — Messrs.  Theodore  Cuyler,  T.  J.  Perkins,  Isaac  N. 
Marselis,  John  Welsh,  Oliver  P.  Cornman,  and  Greorge  M.  Wharton. 

Common  Council. — Messrs.  Alexander  Henry,  Andrew  J.  Holman, 
Henry  T.  King,  Joshua  T.  Owens,  and  D.  S.  Hassinger. 

MEETING  OF  CITIZENS. 

In  pursuance  of  a  call  issued  by  Hon.  RICHARD  VAUX,  Mayor  of  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  the  citizens  assembled  in  the  District  Court-room, 
on  Friday  evening,  March  27,  1857,  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  with  the 
municipal  authorities  in  making  arrangements  for  the  reception  of  the 
remains  of  the  late  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  and  for  appropriate  funeral 
solemnities. 

At  seven  o'clock  the  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Prof.  John  F. 
Frazer,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and,  on  motion,  his  Honor, 
Mayor  VAUX,  was  called  to  the  chair. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Isaac  Elliott,  the  following  gentlemen  were  ap 
pointed 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

HON.  HORACE  BINNEY,  REV.  H.  A.  BOARDMAN,  D.D. 

HON.  J.  R.  INGERSOLL,  JOHN  A.  BROWN,  ESQ. 

DR.  ROBLEY  DUNGLISON,  FREDERICK  FRALEY, 

HON.  ELLIS  LEWIS,  JOHN  WELSH, 

HON.  ELI  K.  PRICE,  HON.  GEORGE  SHARSWOOD, 

PROF.  A.  D.  BACHE,  CHARLES  HENRY  FISHER, 
COMMODORE  CHARLES  STEWART,     SAMUEL  V.  MERRICK. 

On  motion  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Chandler,  the  following  gentlemen 

were  appointed 

SECRETARIES. 

J.  FISHER  LEAMING,  S.  AUSTIN  ALLIBONE, 

EDWIN  COOLIDGE. 

On  taking  his  place  as  Chairman,  Mayor  VAUX  stated  the  object  of 
the  gathering : — 

The  occasion  of  our  assembling  is  to  pay,  on  behalf  of  this  commu 
nity,  a  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane.  He 


292  DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


lived  for  his  country,  philanthropy,  and  science.  He  died  a  victim  to 
the  devotedness  of  his  life  to  his  life's  purpose.  A  citizen  of  Philadel 
phia,  with  a  fame  coextensive  with  learning  and  humanity,  his  mortal 
remains  are  about  to  be  placed  in  a  grave  of  his  native  soil.  The 
nobleness  of  his  self-devotion,  the  heroism  of  his  contests,  the  results  of 
his  exertions,  the  cause  of  his  early  death,  have  placed  his  name  among 
those  of  whom  it  is  justly  said,  f(  Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori." 


REMARKS  OF  HON.  WILLIAM  B.  REED. 

The  first  speaker  of  the  evening,  Hon.  William  B.  Reed,  then  rose 
and  said  : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  : — The  duty  has  been  delegated  to  me  to  offer  to  this 
meeting  the  draft  of  a  few  resolutions  expressive  of  the  feeling  which 
animates  it.  I  perform  that  duty  with  melancholy  pleasure.  The  reso 
lutions  are  meant  to  describe  in  precise  and  unexaggerated  terms  the 
pervading  sentiment  of  this  community,  of  sorrow,  of  pride,  of  gratitude. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  the  greatest  poet  (save  one)  that  ever  spoke 
the  English  language  said, — 

"  Peace  hath  her  victories, 
Not  less  renown'd  than  wars." 

And  we  have  met  here  to-night,  in  this,  the  city  of  his  birth,  to  do  honor 
to  him  who  was  emphatically  one  of  the  heroes  of  peace  and  peaceful 
enterprise.  His  victories  were  won  in  dismal  solitude  and  amidst  silent 
suffering, — in  the  gloom  of  Arctic  winter,  and  the  greater  peril  of 
Arctic  summer.  His  were  peaceful  conflicts,  away  from  humanity, 
while  the  rest  of  what  is  called  the  civilized  world  were  embroiled  in 
fiercer  and  more  ambitious  struggles;  for  in  the  three  years  of  Dr. 
Kane's  last  adventure,  from  May,  1853,  to  September,  1855,  when 
Hartstene  (to  whom  be  all  honor,  too)  found  the  wayfarers  at  Lieveley, 
the  outer  world  was  either  convulsed,  or  with  interest  watching  the 
bloody  strife  in  Southeastern  Europe.  I  do  not  pause  to  ask  whose 
was  the  greater  heroism :  those  who  fought  within  and  without  Sevas 
topol,  or  those  eighteen  American  men  who,  clustered  in  the  little 
cabin  of  the  Advance,  watched  and  suffered  during  two  Arctic  winters, 
and  hoped  and  struggled  for  but  one  reward, — the  discovery  and  rescue 
of  the  gallant  men  who,  eight  years  before,  had  sought  and  encountered, 
and,  as  the  result  has  shown,  had  been  sacrificed  to,  the  same  perils. 
Our  Philadelphia  hero  was  with  the  heroes  of  peace,  in  solitude,  in 
silence,  and  suffering.  Hence,  we  have  reason  to  be  proud  of  him. 


OBSEQUIES    OF  293 


We  have  gratitude,  too,  to  express.  The  wasted  frame  of  the  dead  is 
brought  back  to  us,  but  we,  his  friends  and  townsmen,  have  been  made 
aware  Mt  the  last  hours  of  his  life  were  passed  in  foreign  lands, 
among  those  who  were  personally  strangers,  and  yet  that  first  in 
England,  where  no  American  gentleman  can  long  be  a  stranger,  and 
afterward  in  Cuba,  which  peaceful  affinities  are  every  hour  binding 
closer  to  us,  our  Philadelphia  man,  untitled,  undistinguished  except  by 
what  he  has  done  and  suffered  for  humanity's  sake,  was  nursed,  and 
cared  for,  and  consoled,  with  as  much  tenderness  and  affection  as  if  his 
bed  of  sickness  had  been'  within  the  limits  of  his  native  land.  In  this 
our  gratitude  is  due. 

Our  sorrow  it  is  not  easy  to  describe,  simply  because  what  we  as  fellow- 
citizens  feel  seems  feeble  in  comparison  with  the  sharper  grief  of  rela 
tives  and  intimate  personal  friends.  The  community  mourns  for  an 
eminent  citizen.  We  mourn  with  selfish  sorrow,  because  we  craved 
other  honors  which  he  might  have  won  for  us.  The  latent  hope  is 
frustrated  that  our  American  explorer — our  Philadelphia  adventurer — 
might,  had  his  life  been  prolonged,  yet  have  solved  the  problem  of 
Franklin's  fate,  and  carried  back  to  our  fatherland  that  which  would 
have  been  more  precious  than  the  abandoned  Resolute, — some  survivor 
of  poor  Franklin's  band,  or  some  authentic  intelligence  (for  there  is 
really  none  such)  of  their  actual  fate.  We  sorrow  not  without  hope, 
while  such  men  as  Hartstene,  and  Simms,  and  De  Haven  are  left 
with  us. 

Let  us,  then,  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  the 
dead — our  illustrious  dead — in  the  manner  which  best  becomes  him  and 
us ;  with  dignity,  with  moderation,  with  decorum,  with  no  exaggerated 
ostentation,  with  no  effort  to  make  mere  ceremonial  transcend  the  limits 
of  actual  feeling.  Let  us  show  we  feel  this  blow  deeply.  While  other 
communities  may  exceed  us  in  display,  let  Philadelphia — the  city  of 
Kane's  birth,  and  education,  and  manhood — show  the  deepest  and  most 
earnest  feeling. 

Mr.  Reed  then  submitted  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  : — 

The  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  convened  in  general  town  meeting,  at  the 
call  of  their  Chief-Magistrate,  desire  to  unite  with  the  constituted 
authorities  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  their  distinguished  towns 
man,  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  who  recently  died  in  a  foreign  land,  and 
whose  mortal  remains  now  approach  their  final  resting-place  in  his 
native  city.  With  this  view,  they  have 

Resolved,  That  Philadelphia  discharges  the  simplest   duty   of  self- 


294  DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


respect  in  doing  honor  to  one  who,  on  the  great  theatre  of  the  enlight 
ened  world,  has  attracted  the  interest  and  the  applause  of  all  who  sym 
pathize  with  the  nohlest  impulses  of  humanity  and  watch  the  progress  of 
scientific  discovery  and  gallant  adventure. 

Resolved,  That,  aside  from  the  deht  of  gratitude  we  owe  for  the  fame 
he  has  gained  for  Philadelphia,  as  Christians  and  citizens  of  the  world, 
we  honor  him  for  the  persevering  resolution  with  which  he  conducted 
the  second  American  Expedition  in  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  with 
no  superior  officer  to  control  or  direct  him,  and  no  other  support  in  long 
years  of  trial  and  privation  than  his  own  moral  and  intellectual  resources, 
and  the  sympathies  of  the  gallant  men  under  his  command. 

Resolved,  That  the  English  people  owe  (and  we  doubt  not  will  gladly 
pay)  to  Dr.  Kane  this  especial  gratitude  : — that  he,  more  than  any  other, 
by  the  power  of  his  pen  and  the  influence  of  his  example,  awakened  the 
interest  of  America  to  the  career  and  fate  of  those  heroic  men  whose 
undiscovered  destiny  is  yet  the  problem  of  this  age  of  active  enterprise. 

Resolved,  That  Philadelphia,  sorrowfully  but  proudly  welcoming  the 
mortal  remains  of  her  dead  son  home  again,  thanks  with  earnest  sin 
cerity  the  distant  communities  whose  kindness  consoled  his  latest  hours 
upon  earth,  those  who  strove  by  all  the  appliances  of  professional  skill 
and  domestic  comfort  to  arrest  the  progress  of  disease,  and,  when  in 
another  land  the  hour  of  final  agony  came,  those  who  mourned  with 
tender  sympathy  around  the  bed  of  death. 

Resolved,  That  the  citizens  now  assembled,  thus  inadequately  express 
ing  the  general  sentiment  of  the  community,  will  unite  with  the  Councils 
and  the  other  authorities  in  such  funeral  ceremony  as  may  be  determined 
on,  and  that  the  Mayor  be  requested  to  appoint  a  committee  of  sixteen 
citizens  to  act  as  a  committee  of  arrangement. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting,  duly  en 
grossed  and  authenticated,  be  communicated  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased,  and  to  such  of  the  authorities  of  the  British  and  Spanish 
Governments  as  may  hereafter  be  determined  on  as  best  representing 
those  whose  kindness  to  our  lamented  townsman  we  desire  to  com 
memorate. 


MAJOR  BIDDLE'S  SPEECH. 

Major  Charles  J.  Biddle,  in  seconding  the  resolutions,  said : — I  am 
requested  to  second  the  resolutions  which  have  been  offered  to  the  meet 
ing.  In  so  doing,  I  shall  not  trespass  long  upon  your  indulgence,  for  I 


OBSEQUIES   OF  295 


see  present  many  gentlemen  whose  eloquence  may  find  an  appropriate 
theme  in  the  event  which  now  brings  us  together. 

This  meeting  is  not  an  assemblage  of  the  professional  associates  or 
the  personal  friends  of  the  deceased, — such  as  are  convened  on  occasions 
of  ordinary  bereavement, — but  it  represents  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia, 
who  desire  to  join  with  the  municipal  authorities  in  paying  the  last 
honors  to  one  whose  career  reflected  honor  upon  the  city  of  his  birth. 
For,  at  this  moment,  there  is  no  man,  native  to  our  city,  whose  name  and 
fame  are  so  widely  spread  as  his  whose  untimely  fate  we  deplore.  At 
an  age  when  a  man  has  done  much  if  he  has  acquired  local  distinction, 
Kane's  celebrity  extends  throughout — nay,  beyond — the  limits  of  the 
civilized  world,  for  even  in  the  ice-bound  regions  of  the  North  Pole  his 
name  is  recalled  with  reverence  and  affection. 

But  it  will  not  be  inappropriate  for  me  to  leave  to  others  those  general 
reflections  which  his  career  suggests,  and  to  mention  a  circumstance  of 
which  I  had  particular  opportunities  of  hearing.  During  the  war  with 
Mexico,  Dr.  Kane  obtained  a  release  from  other  duties  and  came  out  to 
that  country  to  join  the  American  army.  With  his  ardent  and  chival 
rous  temperament,  I  can  suppose  him  to  have  heard  with  regret  that 
battles  which  decided  the  issue  of  the  war  had  been  already  fought  and 
won.  But  Providence  reserved  for  him  a  distinction  so  appropriate  to 
his  philanthropic  character,  that  all  will  perceive  how  much  more  it 
became  him  than  ordinary  military  honors. 

At  that  time,  there  was  employed  by  General  Scott,  for  purposes  of 
communication  and  intelligence,  a  company  of  Mexicans,  who  had 
attached  themselves  to  the  American  cause.  Dr.  Kane  arrived  at  the 
city  of  Puebla  at  a  time  when  this  company  was  returning  from  an  expe 
dition  and  on  its  way  to  join  the  army.  In  his  eagerness  to  reach  that 
destination,  he  did  not  wait  for  a  worthier  escort,  but  placed  himself 
under  their  guidance.  Upon  the  road  they  met  with  a  Mexican  force, 
and  the  mutual  hostility  of  the  two  parties  led  to  an  immediate  encounter, 
in  which  our  adherents,  aided  by  Kane  and  encouraged  by  his  example, 
were  victorious. 

But  the  enmity  of  these  renegades  against  their  own  countrymen  was 
not  restrained  by  the  rules  of  ordinary  warfare,  and  their  first  impulse 
was  to  improve  their  advantage  by  a  massacre  of  the  prisoners.  Against 
this  I  need  not  say  that  Kane  remonstrated ;  and,  when  his  remonstrances 
proved  vain,  he  threw  himself  before  the  intended  victims,  and  made 
his  own  body  the  barrier  between  them  and  the  death  that  menaced 
them.  Single-handed,  his  dauntless  bearing  prevailed  in  that  struggle ; 


296  DR.    ELISHA   KENT    KANE. 


but  when  I  saw  him,  not  long  afterward,  he  bore  upon  his  person  a 
wound  from  an  intercepted  blow  aimed  at  the  life  of  one  of  the  prisoners,— 
a  wound  from  which  he  had  not  then  recovered,  if  indeed  he  ever 
entirely  recovered  from  the  effects  of  it. 

Here,  then,  I  say,  he  won  an  honor  consistent  with  that  benevolence 
of  character  which  was  to  impel  him  to  those  arduous  researches  the 
end  and  aim  of  which  were  to  carry  aid  to  suffering  humanity.  Doubt 
less  all  of  us  thought  with  regret  and  sympathy  of  Franklin  and  his 
comrades,  lost,  starved,  frozen  up  in  living  death,  "  in  the  thrilling 
regions  of  thick-ribbed  ice ;"  but  their  cry  for  aid  seemed  to  reach  the 
very  heart  of  Kane,  and  he  girded  himself  up,  and  roused  the  enthu 
siasm  of  others  to  noble  and  powerful  and  persistent  efforts  for  their 
rescue. 

It  is  in  this  forgetfulness  of  self,  in  sympathy  for  others,  that  I  recog 
nise  the  traits  of  a  noble  character,  worthy,  fellow-citizens,  of  all  the 
honors  we  can  pay  to  it. 


PROF.  FRAZER'S  ADDRESS. 

Major  Biddle  was  followed  by  Professor  John  F.  Frazer,  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  who  spoke  in  eloquent  and  impressive  lan 
guage  of  the  scientific  attainments  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  of  the  name  and 
fame  which  he  had  acquired  by  his  industry,  his  energy,  his  trials,  and 
his  sufferings.  My  own  personal  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Kane,  said  he, 
dates  from  comparatively  a  late  period.  I  became  acquainted  with  him 
shortly  before  his  first  expedition ;  but  I  know  few  persons,  and  in  the 
course  of  my  reading  came  across  few  sources  of  such  abundant,  thorough, 
well-digested  information,  as  Dr.  Kane  brought  back  with  him  from 
every  expedition  he  made.  His  was  truly,  sir,  a  scientific  mind, — a 
mind  quick  in  its  observations, — a  miud  enthusiastic  in  its  appreciation, 
— a  mind  full  of  that  brilliant  genius  of  induction,  by  means  of  which 
he  was  enabled  to  see  the  connection  which  lay  between  phenomena 
which,  perhaps,  might  have  been  passed  unappreciated  and  been  for 
gotten  by  others. 

But  it  was  not  merely  in  recording  science  that  Dr.  Kane  excelled, 
but  it  was  in  that  beautiful  disposition  which  enabled  him  to  see  some 
thing  beyond  what  is  ordinarily  considered  science.  He  was  enabled  to 
see  that  this  portion  of  his  study  was,  in  effect,  nothing  but  preparation 
for  a  greater  and  more  full  knowledge  of  more  grand  and  sublime  myste 
ries  hereafter. 


OBSEQUIES   OF  297 


MR.  CHANDLER'S  SPEECH. 

The  Hon.  J.  R.  Chandler  said : — After  what  has  been  said,  and  well 
said,  the  object  for  which  we  assemble  this  evening  will  find  its  greatest 
approval.  Indeed,  sir,  the  public  grief  for  the  cause  for  which  we  assemble 
on  this  occasion  is  of  a  character  which  words  fail  to  express.  I  appear, 
sir,  at  the  request  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  committee,  or  I  would  not  have 
trespassed  upon  your  time.  While  I  was  without  that  intimate  per 
sonal  relation  with  Dr.  Kane  which  others  here  possessed,  I  was  deeply 
interested  in  his  public  movements,  and  greatly  concerned  for  his  last 
voyage  to  the  North.  And  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  concur  in  a  reso 
lution  by  which  the  intrepid  gentleman  should  go  at  the  public  expense. 
But,  sir,  I  stand  here,  as  a  member  of  this  community,  to  say  how  deeply 
every  member  of  it  feels  the  loss  that  the  nation  has  sustained  in  the 
death  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  to  express  our  appreciation  of  his  great  worth, 
and  his  noble,  generous  daring,  and  his  benevolence,  which  outstripped 
all,  to  give  expression  to  those  feelings  which  such  acts  and  such  motives 
excite, — expression,  sir,  which  will  not  be  complete  until  every  individual 
benefited  or  honored  by  his  exertions  shall  also  utter  his  sentiments, 
and  until  impartial  history  shall  have  handed  to  future  generations,  for 
admiration,  the  name  and  the  deeds  of  one  who  is  so  honored  by  the 
present  generation.  His  life  will  be  the  history  of  private  griefs;  it  will 
be  the  history  of  many  sufferings,  and  a  statement  of  deep  and  of  abiding 
interest.  But,  sir,  history  will  do  justice  to  these,  and  demonstrate  the 
propriety  of  any  movement  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  one  who  was 
so  distinguished.  It  would  be  scarcely  proper  in  any  public  meeting  to 
attempt  to  follow  Dr.  Kane  through  his  interesting  movements  by  which 
he  has  connected  his  name  with  the  history  of  this  age.  The  gentleman 
preceding  me  has  given  an  edifying  anecdote  concerning  him.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  every  Philadelphian  to  follow  him  upon  his  track  across 
the  frozen  ocean,  to  fancy  one's  self  with  him  when  he  looked  down  on  the 
calm,  peaceful  Arctic  Sea  from  a  point  upon  which  perhaps  no  man  had 
ever  rested,  and  the  existence  of  which  had  been  recorded  by  no  pen  but 
his,  and  then  to  follow  him  from  that  cold  frozen  region  down  to  the 
sunny  climate  of  the  Antilles,  and  to  see  there,  festering  in  his  heart, 
the  arrow  which  had  been  planted  there  at  the  North,  already  wasting 
his  life  in  disease,  and  now  looking  across  the  barrier  of  time  upon  the 
great  ocean  of  eternity,  which  he  could  not  describe,  making  those  last 
discoveries,  and  the  only  discoveries  made  by  Dr.  Kane  that  were  not 
for  the  benefit  of  those  whom  he  left  behind. 


298  DR.    ELISHA  KENT   KANE. 


I  speak  now,  sir,  because  I  believe  it  proper  on  an  occasion  of  this 
kind  to  do  honors  such  as  this  meeting  is  called  to  do.  I  do  not  sup 
pose,  sir,  that  we  shall  add  any  thing  to  his  fame  j  but  it  is  to  our  own 
credit  as  Philadelphians,  it  is  to  our  own  credit  as  citizens  of  the  city 
that  gave  him  birth,  that  we  appreciate  his  deeds ;  and  it  is  a  source  of 
gratification  to  every  Philadelphian,  and  the  friends  of  Dr.  Kane  espe 
cially,  that  while  he  was  busily  engaged  in  those  vast  pursuits  which 
gave  him  a  world-wide  fame,  that  while  he  was  looking  from  the  Equator 
to  the  Poles,  and  making  himself  familiar  with  all  that  concerned  this 
earth,  it  was  a  providential  blessing  that  he  was  not  unacquainted  with 
the  fickle  tenor  in  which  his  life  was  held. 

I  will  not  trespass  longer.  I  have  other  duties  to  perform ;  but  this 
was  a  solemn  one  to  me.  There  are  those  who  will  do  more  honor  to  his 
principles,  but  there  are  none  who  can  feel  more  deeply  the  honor  and 
glory  that  was  reflected  on  our  beloved  city  by  such  a  man. 


REMARKS  OF  REV.  DR.  BOARDMAN. 

Rev.  Dr.  H.  A.  Boardman  said : — I  am  here,  sir,  on  the  invitation  of 
one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  Committee.  I  should  have  been  here  under 
any  circumstances,  (Providence  permitting;)  and  I  am  here  on  that  invi 
tation  simply  to  express  my  concurrence  in  that  object  for  which  this 
meeting  has  been  assembled,  and  my  sympathy  in  the  great  bereavement 
which. an  All-wise  Providence  has  seen  fit  to  visit  upon  us;  and,  if  I 
rightly  interpret  the  feelings  of  this  community  by  my  own,  there  can 
be  but  very  little  of  the  mere  pageantry  of  grief.  We  are  not  here  simply 
to  express  our  admiration  for  Dr.  Kane. 

There  is  not  a  man  in  this  assembly, — no !  there  is  not  a  man  in  this 
broad  land,  or  any  other  land, — who  has  read  those  picturesque  and 
beautiful  volumes,  whose  heart  has  not  gone  out  in  love  as  well  as  in 
admiration  for  him.  It  is  impossible  for  a  man  who  is  susceptible  of  any 
generous  sentiment  to  read  the  simple  and  graphic  records  of  his  labors 
and  his  trials  without  love,  and  not  feel  it  to  be  a  privilege  to  cast  if  it 
be  but  a  single  flower  upon  his  grave. 

Dr.  Kane,  sir,  has  established  a  name  and  a  place  for  himself  among 
our  men  of  science,  and  he  will  be  held  in  high  and  honorable  remem 
brance  by  the  scientific  associations  and  institutions  of  Christendom ;  and 
they  will  not  fail  to  pay  every  homage  to  his  memory,  in  fitting  terms  and 
with  becoming  honors. 

Dr.  Kane,  sir,  has  gone  down  to  the  grave  lamented ;  and  this  bereave- 


OBSEQUIES   OF  299 


ment  will  go  home  to  thousands,  to  millions  of  hearts,  just  in  propor 
tion  as  that  work — I  refer  especially  to  the  last  work — whose  circle 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  like  the  tide,  is  continually  swelling  and 
swelling  to  receive  new  appreciations.  Philadelphia  may  well  mourn. 
Let  us  not  forget  the  intrepidity,  the  indomitable  energy  and  perse 
verance,  of  Dr.  Kane. 

Sir,  there  is  not  an  act  recorded  in  his  volumes  which  is  in  the  least 
degree  tainted  with  the  element  of  selfishness.  He  stood  among  that 
company  not  as  their  leader  and  captain, — not  as  their  guide  and  teacher 
simply, — but  as  their  friend  and  their  father ;  and  it  was  his  daily  care — 
yes,  sir,  and  his  daily  prayer — that  they  might  be  sheltered  and  protected 
at  whatever  hazard  of  personal  inconvenience  or  peril  to  himself. 

The  speaker  concluded  by  referring  to  the  scientific  acquirements  of 
the  deceased,  and  in  a  life  of  so  short  duration. 

Mr.  John  A.  Brown  suggested  that  the  citizens  should  adopt  some 
measure  to  secure  the  erection  of  a  suitable  monument  to  be  placed  over 
the  final  resting-place  of  the  deceased,  and  something  to  that  effect  should 
be  embodied  in  the  resolutions. 

Mr.  Coolidge  moved  to  refer  this  to  the  committee  to  be  appointed 
under  the  resolution. 

Mr.  Brown  acquiesced  in  this  motion,  and  it  was  agreed  to. 

The  preamble  and  resolutions  were  unanimously  agreed  to. 

The  Mayor  announced  the  Committee  of  sixteen,  as  follows : — 

HON.  JOSEPH  R.  CHANDLER,  HON.  CHARLES  J.  INGERSOEL, 

ISAAC  ELLIOTT,  PROF.  JOHN  S.  HART, 

MAJ.  CHARLES  J.  BIDDLE,  WILLIAM  B.  FOSTER, 

HON.  WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY,  EDWARD  WARTMAN, 

ISAAC  HAZLEHURST,  THOMAS  S.  STEWART, 

GEN.  GEORGE  CADWALADER,  HON.  WILLIAM  H.  WITTE, 

ISAAC  F.  BAKER,  ALEXANDER  CUMMINGS, 

JOSEPH  M.  THOMAS,  CHARLES  HALLOWELL. 

On  motion  of  Hon.  William  D.  Kelley,  the  meeting  adjourned  at 
about  8  o'clock. 


COKN  EXCHANGE. 

A  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Corn  Exchange  was  held  February 
27,  1857. 

Colonel  S.  N.  "Winslow,  after  a  few  remarks  in  regard  to  the  decease  of 
Dr.  E.  K.  Kane,  moved  that  Mr.  Alexander  Gr.  Cattell  be  called  to  the 
Chair,  and  Mr.  W.  S.  Pierie  be  appointed  Secretary,  which  was  agreed  to. 


300  DR.   ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


Mr.  George  L.  Buzby  moved  that  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed 
to  submit  a  preamble  and  resolutions  expressive  of  their  views  upon  the 
subject,  which  was  agreed  to. 

Messrs.  George  L.  Buzby,  John  Wright,  and  William  B.  Thomas 
were  appointed  on  the  committee,  who  submitted  the  following : — 

Whereas,  It  has  pleased  an  All-wise  Providence  to  remove  from  his 
earthly  career  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane ;  and, 

Whereas,  The  mercantile  and  commercial  community,  having  a  proper 
appreciation  of  the  eminent  abilities  of  the  deceased,  and  of  his  enthu 
siastic  and  untiring  efforts  in  behalf  of  science  and  philanthropy,  feel, 
in  common  with  the  rest  of  our  fellow-citizens,  the  irreparable  loss  which 
not  only  Philadelphia,  but  Pennsylvania,  and  every  other  city  and  State 
in  the  Union,  have  suffered  by  his  demise  :  Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  Corn  Exchange  Association  tender 
to  the  parents  and  relatives  their  sympathies  in  the  day  of  their  affliction. 

Resolved,  That  the  officers  and  members  of  the  Corn  Exchange  Asso 
ciation  will  join  with  the  civic  and  military  authorities  in  rendering  an 
appropriate  mark  of  their  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  and 
that  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  confer  with  similar  committees 
from  other  associations  upon  the  subject. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  furnish  an  authenticated  copy  of  the 
above  preamble  and  resolutions  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 

Mr.  Buzby,  in  moving  the  adoption  of  these  resolutions,  appealed  to 
that  proper  pride  which  ought  to  exist  in  the  bosom  of  every  Philadel- 
phian  when  a  distinguished  fellow-citizen  has  won  the  applause  of  an 
admiring  world.  There  certainly  was  that  strength  of  public  spirit  in 
the  Corn  Exchange  Association  which  insured  their  prompt  desire  to 
render  the  last  tokens  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  remarkable  man 
who  has  left  this  world  young  in  years  but  full  of  honors.  He  had, 
then,  he  was  sure,  only  to  propose  the  resolutions,  without  the  necessity 
of  any  lengthened  remarks,  which,  whilst  unnecessary  to  move  them  to  a 
proper  action  on  this  occasion,  must  necessarily  fall  short  of  the  tribute 
due  to  the  departed.  A  community  which  fails  to  respect  the  memory  of 
her  own  great  children,  and  to  furnish  those  outward  tokens  so  appropriate 
at  such  a  time  as  this,  has  lost  its  own  claims  to  the  respect  of  mankind. 

On  motion  of  George  McHenry,  seconded  by  E.  G.  James,  the  pre 
amble  and  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted,  and  Messrs.  James 
Steel,  C.  J.  Hoffman,  J.  J.  Black,  George  Raphael,  and  James  Barratt, 
were  appointed  on  the  Committee. 


OBSEQUIES   OF  301 


On  motion,  Messrs.  A.  Gr.  Cattell  and  Samuel  L.  Ward  were  subse 
quently  added. 

On  Saturday,  February  28,  the  Committee  from  City  Councils,  and 
the  Committee  appointed  by  the  meeting  of  citizens,  and  the  Committee 
on  the  part  of  the  "Corn  Exchange,"  assembled  in  the  Select  Council 
Chamber,  with  a  view  of  uniting  their  exertions  to  promote  the  objects 
for  which  they  were  severally  appointed,  when,  on  motion  of  Theodore 
Cuyler,  Esq.,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  the  Select  Council,  Hon. 
Joseph  R.  Chandler,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  from  the  meeting 
of  citizens,  was  appointed  Chairman  of  a  Joint  Committee,  and  H.  G. 
Leisinring  was  appointed  Secretary. 

The  Joint  Committee  determined  to  do  all  in  their  power,  with  such 
means  as  they  possessed,  to  fulfil  the  intentions  of  the  several  bodies  by 
which  they  were  appointed,  and  to  make  such  arrangements  as  would 
allow  to  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia  an  expression  of  their  high  regard 
for  the  merits  of  the  distinguished  dead,  doing  honor  at  once  to  the 
greatness  of  his  enterprise  in  the  cause  of  science,  and  to  the  beauty  of 
his  example  in  the  exercise  of  benevolence.  And  the  Joint  Committee 
now  respectfully  report  their  proceedings  under  that  organization. 

At  the  time  of  the  appointment  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangement, 
the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  had  been  brought  from  Havana,  where  he  died, 
to  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  where  they  were  received  with  distinguished 
honors,  which  were  continued  on  the  whole  route  from  that  city  to  Phi 
ladelphia,  making  the  passage  of  the  body  of  the  deceased  one  continuous 
display  of  public  regard ;  and  so  intimately  connected  were  these  demon 
strations  that  each  seemed  to  be  one  link  in  a  lengthened  chain  of  admi 
ration  and  affectionate  respect :  so  universally  felt  and  expressed,  and  so 
in  unison  with  public  sentiment,  were  they,  that  the  concluding  ceremonies 
in  Philadelphia  may  be  regarded  as  a  natural  termination  of  the  demon 
strations  of  regard  commenced  at  Havana. 

And  hence  the  Committee  have  deemed  it  consistent  with  the  objects 
of  their  appointment  to  notice  briefly  the  testimonials  by  which  other 
communities  manifested  their  respect  to  the  character  and  services  of  the 
deceased. 

The  death  of  Dr.  Kane,  it  is  known,  occurred  at  Havana,  on  the  16th 
of  February,  1857;  and  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  resident  in 
that  city  or  transiently  there,  availed  themselves  of  the  earliest  oppor 
tunity  to  express  their  grief  at  the  loss  and  their  respect  for  the  charac 
ter  of  their  distinguished  countryman ;  and  it  is  gratifying  to  notice  that 


302  DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE. 


the  highest  authority  of  the  island  of  Cuba  has  commended  himself  to 
the  grateful  acknowledgment  of  every  American  by  his  promptness  in 
offers  of  aid  in  the  demonstrations  of  respect  to  the  deceased. 

The  subjoined  is  an  abstract  of  the  proceedings  in  Havana  on  the 
death  of  Dr.  Kane  :— 


PROCEEDINGS  AT  HAVANA. 

HAVANA,  17th  February,  1857. 

The  citizens  of  the  United  States  resident  and  transient  in  Havana 
were  this  day  called  together  at  the  Consulate,  by  A.  K.  Blythe,  Esq., 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  public  demonstration  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  our  much-lamented  fellow-citizen,  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane. 

At  two  o'clock,  a  very  large  number  being  assembled,  were  called  to 
order  by  General  Patterson,  of  Pennsylvania,  who,  after  a  few  remarks, 
nominated  the  Hon.  A.  K.  Blythe,  United  States  Consul,  as  Chairman, 
and  Henry  Tiffany,  of  Maryland,  as  Secretary. 

Mr.  Blythe  explained  the  object  of  the  meeting,  which  the  assemblage 
heard  with  deep  sensation;  and  he  also  submitted  the  following  note  from 
the  Governor  Captain-General : — 


[COPY — TRANSLATION.] 

Office  of  the  Governor   Captain-  General  and   Superintendent  of  the 
Exchequer  of  the  Ever-Faithful  Island  of  Cuba. 

(SEAL.) 
Government  Secretary's  Office — Section  of  Government. 

I  have  received  the  communication  that  you  have  addressed  to  me, 
under  this  date,  soliciting  permission  that  the  American  citizens  residing 
in  this  city  may  meet  at  your  residence  for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
public  demonstration  on  the  decease  of  your  fellow-citizen,  Dr.  E.  K. 
Kane.  I  have  the  greatest  satisfaction  in  acceding  to  the  wishes  ex 
pressed  by  you,  and  beg  of  you  to  make  known  to  me  the  result  of  the 
meeting  indicated,  that  I  may  unite  with  you  in  the  manifestation  that 
shall  be  resolved  upon  to  the  memory  of  that  distinguished  man  of 
science.  God  preserve  you  many  years. 

HAVANA,  17th  February,  1857. 

(Signed,)  JOSE  DE  LA  CONCHA. 


OBSEQUIES   OF  303 


To  the  Commercial  Agent  in   Charge  of  the   Consulate  of  the  United 

States. 

HAVANA,  February  18,  1857. 
A.  K.  BLYTHE,  ESQ.  : — 

DEAR  SIR: — His  Excellency,  the  Captain-General,  having  been  in 
formed  that  Dr.  Kane's  body  is  to  be  taken  to  his  native  country,  and 
wishing  that  its  transportation  to  the  vessel  selected  for  that  purpose 
may  be  effected  with  the  respect  due  to  his  merit,  has  resolved  to  place 
at  your  service,  and  that  of  his  friends,  the  Government  barge,  particu 
larly  as  there  are  no  American  men-of-war  in  port  whose  boats  might 
perform  this  sad  duty.  His  Excellency,  for  this  reason,  would  wish  you 
to  inform  him  beforehand  of  the  day  when  the  ceremony  will  take  place, 
in  order  that  he  may  give  the  corresponding  orders  to  the  boat,  and  that 
some  of  the  members  of  the  Scientific  Corporations  of  this  city  may 
accompany  the  remains. 

(Signed,)  MANUEL  AGUIRE  Y  TEJADOR, 

Secretary. 

On  motion  of  General  Patterson,  a  committee  of  five  was  appointed 
by  the  Chairman,  to  present  resolutions  expressive  of  the  sympathy  of 
the  meeting.  The  committee,  consisting  of  General  Patterson,  of  Penn 
sylvania,  Governor  H.  W.  Cushman,  of  Massachusetts,  C.  C.  Thomp 
son,  of  New  York,  Colonel  Robertson,  of  Havana,  and  James  Battle, 
of  Alabama,  reported  the  following,  which  were  adopted  unanimously  : — 

The  late  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane,  having,  by  dispensation  of  divine  Provi 
dence,  terminated  his  brief  but  eventful  career,  we,  citizens  of  the 
United  States  resident  and  transient  in  Havana,  desiring  to  express  our 
grateful  sense  of  his  distinguished  services  to  his  country  and  mankind, 
do  resolve, 

FIRST,  That  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Kane  our  country  has  lost  a  valuable 
and  world-renowned  citizen,  who  has  adorned  her  annals;  science  has 
been  deprived  of  an  ardent  advocate,  ever  ready,  by  self-abnegation,  to 
advance  her  interests ;  and  humanity  a  devotee,  who  yielded  his  life  in 
obedience  to  her  commands. 

SECOND,  That,  whilst  we  deeply  deplore  his  loss  as  a  public  calamity, 
we  tender  our  heartfelt  condolence  to  his  parents,  brothers,  and  distressed 
relatives. 

THIRD,  That  these  resolutions,  with  the  letter  of  the  Governor  Cap 
tain-General  in  relation  to  this  meeting,  be  presented  to  the  family  of 


304  DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


the  deceased,  and  a  copy  of  the  same  be  made  public  through,  the  press 
of  the  United  States. 

To  the  same  committee  that  had  introduced  the  resolutions  was  re 
ferred  the  duty  of  assisting  the  family,  as  mourners,  in*removing  to  the 
steamer  the  body  of  Dr.  Kane,  for  conveyance  to  the  United  States. 

On  the  20th  of  February,  the  body  of  Dr.  Kane  was  borne  on  men's 
shoulders  to  the  Plaza  de  Armes,  followed  by  upward  of  eight  hundred 
persons,  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  subjects  of  other  countries. 
At  the  Plaza,  the  body  was  received  by  His  Excellency  the  Governor 
of  the  city  and  suite;  also,  by  various  associations,  who  joined  in  the 
procession  to  the  place  of  embarkation, — namely : 

The  Inspection  of  Public  Instruction. — Messrs.  Dr.  Don  Nicolas 
Gutierrez  and  Don  Jose*  Luis  Casaseca. 

The  University. — Dr.  Don  Antonia  Zambrana,  Rector  thereof  j  Dr. 
Don  Fernan  Gonzales  del  Valle,  Dr.  Don  Angel  J.  Cowley,  Dr.  Don  Jose 
Joaquin  Sibou;  Dr.  Don  Jose  Sanchez,  Dr.  Don  Jose  Ignacio  Rodriguez. 

The  Economical  Society. — Don  Manuel  Ramos  Izquierdo,  Don  Eu- 
genio  de  Arriaza. 

The  Preparatory  and  Especial  Schools. — Don  Pelayo  Gonzalez, 
Director. 

The  Royal  Board  of  Improvements. — Don  Francisco  Campos  and 
Don  Jose  Valdes  Fauli. 

The  Superior  Board  of  Health. — Dr.  Don  Manuel  Jose*  Yalero,  Secre 
tary  thereof. 

The  Medical  Department  of  the  Army. — The  Inspector  of  the  Corps, 
Don  Fernando  Bastarreche,  Chief  of  the  same  in  the  island. 

A  band  of  military  music  accompanied  the  procession  from  the  begin 
ning,  and  another  band  joined  it  at  the  Plaza.  The  State  barge  received 
the  body  and  the  mourners  at  the  place  of  embarkation,  and  conveyed 
them  to  the  steamer  Catawba.  The  boats  of  the  steamer  and  of  private 
American  vessels,  as  well  as  those  belonging  to  the  ships  of  other  nations, 
followed  in  solemn  procession. 

The  Spanish  flag,  which  had  been  hoisted  at  the  Cabaret,  was  lowered 
as  the  body  was  received  into  the  barge;  and,  on  board  of  the  Catawba, 
Brigadier  Don  Jose  Ignacio  de  Echavarria,  Civil  and  Military  Governor 
of  Havana,  addressed  to  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  and  the  persons 
present  the  following  discourse : — 

GENTLEMEN  : — Enlightened  communities  always  feel  themselves  bound 
to  render  a  tribute  of  respect  and  of  affection  to  those  privileged  beings 


OBSEQUIES   OF  305 


who,  in  the  elevation  of  their  ideas,  are  ready  to  sacrifice  themselves  to 
accomplish  an  object  of  interest  to  all  humanity.  Dr.  Kane  belongs, 
undoubtedly,  as  we  all  know,  to  this  class  of  celebrities.  His  ardent 
scientific  zeal,  his  fervent  enthusiasm  for  the  exaltation  of  his  country, 
and  his  love  for  mankind,  impelled  him  to  investigations  in  the  frozen 
regions,  where,  through  imminent  perils,  immense  privations,  and  with  a 
self-denial  as  exemplary  as  it  was  enviable,  nothing  deterred  him  from 
the  accomplishment  of  his  object  for  which  he  offered  his  health  as  a 
sacrifice.  He  came  to  this  land  for  the  restoration  of  his  health;  and, 
when  the  hope  began  to  be  entertained  of  accomplishing  it,  the  sad  event 
has  occurred  which  assembles  us  in  this  place.  All  the  inhabitants  of 
Cuba  would  have  shared  in  the  satisfaction,  if  his  life  had  been  spared ; 
but  Providence,  in  His  high  designs,  ordained  that  here  he  should  breathe 
his  last,  and  to-day  all  deplore  a  loss  so  important.  His  Excellency  the 
Governor  Captain-General,  entertaining  these  sentiments,  has  wished  to 
offer  a  public  and  solemn  testimony  thereof,  of  the  sympathetic  interest 
that  this  lamentable  event  has  awakened,  and  of  the  share  which  his 
Excellency,  together  with  the  scientific  corporations  of  the  island  and 
the  whole  country,  take  in  the  just  grief  of  the  fellow-citizens  of  Dr. 
Kane,  who  will  ever  be  honored  by  the  memory  of  this  illustrious  man. 
May  he  rest  in  peace,  and  may  aH  coming  generations  be  faithful  and 
constant  to  his  memory,  to  preserve  and  enhance  it  as  it  merits  I 

Mr.  Blythe,  United  States  Consul  at  Havana,  responded  to  the  above, 
in  the  following  terms : — 

SIR  : — I  regret  much  that  we  have  not  a  common  language,  in  which, 
on  behalf  of  my  countrymen,  I  might  express  to  you  our  deep  gratitude 
for  this,  the  closing  act  of  so  great  and  generous  kindness  shown  to  the 
memory  of  our  deceased  fellow-citizen.  I  cannot  forbear,  however,  to 
avail  myself  of  the  occasion  to  declare  to  the  Americans  here  assembled 
that  his  Excellency  the  Captain-General,  and  all  the  authorities,  have 
done  every  thing  suggested  by  us,  and  much  dictated  by  themselves,  to 
the  honor  of  him  whose  loss  we  all  deplore,  and  who  in  his  life  so  honored 
our  native  land.  I  rejoice  that  it  has  been  so,  for  two  reasons:  it  is  a 
just  tribute  to  him  who  faithfully  served  his  country  and  mankind,  and 
is  evincive  of  a  spirit  of  amity  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  so  gene 
rously  co-operated  with  us  in  our  sad  duties.  The  mild  amenities  of  life, 
whether  socially  or  nationally  extended,  do  much  to  mollify  the  feelings 
and  create  cordial  friendships :  when  to  courtesy  is  added  the  exalted 

20 


306  DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


sentiment  of  humanity,  such  actions  are  the  result  as  command  our  grate 
ful  admiration.  With  great  pleasure  I  say  to  you,  my  countrymen,  that 
for  all  these  benignities  we  are  under  great  obligation  to  those  in  authority 
here.  Again,  sir,  in  behalf  of  the  people  I  represent,  I  return  to  you. 
and  the  other  officers  of  your  Government  who  have  so  generously  parti 
cipated  with  us  in  these  sad  rites,  our  sincere  thanks. 

The  whole  proceedings  at  Havana,  from  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Kane,  sick 
and  suffering,  until  his  remains  left  the  harbor  of  that  city,  were  marked 
by  delicacy  and  kindness  toward  him  and  his  friends  while  he  lived,  and, 
when  he  died,  honors  that  reflect  honor  upon  the  officers  and  people^  and 
appeal  to  the  finest  feelings  of  the  human  heart  for  appreciation  and 
gratitude,  were  bestowed  upon  his  memory  and  remains. 


CEREMONIES  AT  NEW  ORLEANS. 

The  Catawba  arrived  at  New  Orleans  on  the  22d  of  February,  and,  as 
soon  as  the  steamer  reached  her  berth,  his  Honor,  Mayor  Waterman, 
promptly  proffered  to  the  relatives  of  the  deceased  the  city's  guardian 
ship  of  the  hallowed  remains  while  they  remained  within  its  limits; 
and,  that  offer  being  gratefully  accepted,  the  company  of  Continental 
Guards  escorted  the  body  to  the  City  Hall,  where  it  lay  in  state  under 
the  honorable  guard  of  the  company  that  escorted  it  thither.  Every 
pains  were  taken  to  make  expressive  the  demonstrations  of  respect ;  and 
the  manifestations  of  regard  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of  New  Orleans 
were  such  as  to  do  honor  to  that  city. 

The  procession  to  convey  the  remains  to  the  steamer  Woodford,  that 
was  to  ascend  the  river,  was  composed  of  an  unusual  display  of  the  mili 
tary  of  the  two  brigades  in  full  uniform,  the  Sons  of  St.  George,  a  large 
and  imposing  body  of  Englishmen,  the  Masonic  Order,  the  corpse,  with 
twelve  pall-bearers,  being  officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  represen 
tatives  of  Civic  Societies,  the  Mayor  and  Recorder  and  Foreign  Consuls 
following  in  carriages.  The  Keystone  Club,  composed  of  Pennsylvanians 
and  citizens  in  general.  The  whole  proceedings  in  New  Orleans  were 
most  expressive  and  honorable  to  all. 

The  progress  of  the  steamer  that  conveyed  up  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Ohio  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  was  watched  with  intense  anxiety,  and 
whenever  it  was  possible  the  attempt  wag  made  by  the  people  to  give 
expression  to  the  respect  which  the  lofty  character  and  ennobling  service 


OBSEQUIES   OF  307 


of  the  deceased  had  excited.  Only  one  feeling  seemed  to  animate  the 
public  mind  through  the  whole  progress  of  the  remains, — deep  and 
abiding  respect  for  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  anxiety  to  give  such  an 
expression  to  that  feeling  as  would  be  most  to  the  honor  of  him  who 
had  so  honored  his  country  and  his  kind;  and  many  anecdotes  are  related 
of  gentle  and  delicate  expressions  of  regard. 

At  Louisville,  Kentucky,  preparations  worthy  the  high  credit  of  that 
city  had  been  made,  to  do  honor  to  the  deceased. 

In  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  the  remains,  the  Mayor  of  Louisville 
issued  a  call  for  the  Councils  of  the  city  to  meet,  with  a  view  of  making 
proper  arrangements  to  do  honor  to  the  fame  of  the  hero  of  peace,  and 
public  meetings  of  citizens  were  also  held  to  unite  in  these  demonstra 
tions.  The  Order  of  Free  Masons  had  also  made  arrangements  to  lead 
in  this  manifestation  of  respect. 


CEREMONIES  AT  LOUISVILLE,  KY. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  respective  committees  on  the  part  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity,  the  city  authorities,  and  the  citizens  of  Louisville,  held  at  the 
Merchants'  Exchange,  March  2,  1.857,  for  the  purpose  of  making  all 
necessary  arrangements  for  the  reception  of  the  remains  of  Elisha  Kent 
Kane,  M.D.,  Captain  Thomas  Joyes  was  appointed  Chairman,  and  John 
D.  Pope  Secretary. 

His  Honor  the  Mayor  presented  a  communication  from  George  L. 
Febryir,  Esq.,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  stating  that  extensive  arrangements  had  been  made  by  the  citizens 
of  Ohio  for  the  reception  of  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  in  that  State,  and 
asking  that  a  committee  of  escort  from  Louisville  be  appointed,  which 
would  be  met  at  the  Miami  River  by  a  committee  from  Cincinnati. 

Which  was  read,  and  thereupon  Dr.  U.  E.  Ewing,  Col.  Thos.  Ander 
son,  Col.  L.  A.  Whiteley,  Capt.  Thos.  Joyes,  Dr.  Palmer,  Dr.  N.  B. 
Marshall,  Dr.  Lewis  Rogers,  James  S.  Lithgow,  and  Moses  Dickson,  were 
added  to  the  escort  heretofore  appointed  to  convey  the  remains  to  Cin 
cinnati. 

Captain  Lovel  H.  Rousseau  was  appointed  Chief-Marshal  on  the  part 
of  the  citizens,  and  authorized  to  appoint  assistant  marshals  at  his 
discretion. 

The  following  programme  was  adopted,  and  ordered  to  be  published : — 


308  DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE. 


PROGRAMME  FOR  THE  RECEPTION  OF  THE  REMAINS  OF 
DR.  E.  K.  KANE. 

Upon  the  signal  being  given,  the  respective  committees  of  reception 
will  assemble  immediately  on  horseback,  at  the  court-house,  and  pro 
ceed  thence  to  Portland,  where,  in  conjunction  with  Lewis  Lodge,  No. 
205,  they  will  take  charge  of  the  remains  and  accompany  them  to  the 
intersection  of  Maine  and  Twelfth  Streets. 

At  the  same  signal,  all  the  associate  bodies  and  the  citizens  whc 
intend  to  participate  in  the  procession  will  assemble  as  follows : — 

The  Masonic  fraternity  at  their  hall,  corner  of  Market  and  Third 
Streets. 

The  firemen  at  the  Union  Engine  House. 

The  various  other  civic  associations  at  their  respective  places  of 
meeting. 

The  citizens  on  foot,  in  carriages,  and  on  horseback,  at  the  court-house. 

Within  one  hour  after  the  signal  for  assembling  the  procession  will 
be  formed  at  the  court-house,  and  proceed,  in  such  order  as  may  be 
directed  by  the  Chief-Marshal,  to  the  corner  of  Twelfth  and  Main 
Streets,  where,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  cortege  from  Portland,  the  pro 
cession  will  be  formed  in  the  following  order : — 

Chief-Marshal  and  Assistants. 

Music. 
Masonic  Fraternity. 

Pall-Bearers,     fbl     Pall-Bearers. 


Family  and  Relations  of  Deceased  in  Carriages. 
Reception-Committee  and  Escorts. 
Members  of  the  Medical  Faculty. 
Members  of  the  Legal  Profession. 

Municipal  Authorities. 
Chief -of  the  Police  and  Assistants. 

M,usic. 

Fire  Department. 

Civic  Associations. 

Citizens  on  Foot. 

Citizens  in  Carriages. 

Citizens  on  Horseback. 


DB.   ELISHA  KENT   KANE.  309 


The  signal  for  assembling  will  be  the  tolling  of  the  fire-bells  and  the 
firing  of  the  minute-guns. 

The  citizens  generally,  and  the  civic  associations  of  New  Albany, 
Jefferson ville,  and  the  adjoining  counties,  are  invited  to  join  the  proces 
sion. 

Masonic  Reception  Committee. — M.  W.  Barr,  Frank  Tryon,  John  D. 
Pope,  Syl.  Thomas,  B.  A.  Flood. 

Citizen  Reception  Committee. — Col.  Thos.  Anderson,  Capt.  Thomas 
Joyes,  Dr.  T.  S.  Bell,  Dr.  U.  E.  Ewing,  Col.  L.  A.  Whiteley. 

Pall-Bearers.— Samuel  Griffith,  S.  Hillman,  J.  C.  Hoffman,  Gr.  P. 
Schetkey,  David  L.  Beatty,  David  T.  Monsarrat,  D.  Marcellus,  C.  C. 
Spencer. 

Masonic  Chief-Marshal. — Edwin  S.  Craig. 

Assistants. — H.  C.  Morton,  J.  H.  Shroder. 

Citizens'  Chief -Marshal. — Capt.  L.  H.  Kousseau. 

Route  of  Procession. — The  procession  will  move,  under  the  direction 
of  the  Chief-Marshal  and  his  assistants,  up  Twelfth  Street  to  Walnut, 
up  Walnut  to  Second,  along  Second  to  Main,  down  Main  to  Fourth,  and 
out  Fourth  to  Mozart  Hall,  where  the  Reception  Committees  and  Pall- 
Bearers  will  take  charge  of  the  remains  until  they  are  delivered  to  the 
escort  to  accompany  them  to  Cincinnati. 

The  body  of  Dr.  Kane  was  received  with  great  ceremony,  and  con 
veyed  to  the  Mozart  Hall,  where  it  lay  in  state,  attended  by  a  guard  of 
honor. 

On  the  following  day  the  remains  were  removed  to  the  steamer.  The 
procession  was  headed  by  the  Masonic  Fraternity,  and  was  composed  of 
the  city  authorities  and  the  numerous  associations  of  the  place.  The 
whole  arrangement  of  reception  and  transmission  of  the  remains  in  the 
city  of  Louisville  was  of  the  most  liberal  kind.  From  Louisville  the 
remains  of  Dr.  Kane  were  conveyed  to  New  Albany,  Indiana,  and  appro 
priately  received  there. 

A  Committee  from  the  city  of  Cincinnati  here  met  the  New  Albany 
and  Louisville  Committee,  and  received  the  charge  of  the  sacred  remains 
and  conveyed  them  by  steamer  to  Cincinnati,  accompanied  by  deputa 
tions  from  the  cities  below.  The  feelings  of  deep  respect  expressed  in 
the  remarks  of  the  various  Committees,  as  they  resigned  or  received  the 
charge,  were  eloquent  homages  to  the  great  merits  of  the  dead. 


310 


OBSEQUIES   OF 


CEEEMONIES  AT  CINCINNATI. 
PROGRAMME  AND  ORDER  OF  ARRANGEMENTS. 

MILITARY  AND  CIVIC  PROCESSION. 
FORMATION   AND   LINE   OF   MARCH. 

Grand  Marshal — Gassaway  Brashears. 
Grand  Marshals. 

Colonel  John  W.  Dudley, 
Captain  H.  W.  Burdsall, 
E.  B.  Dennison, 
W.  L.  O'Brien, 
Theophilus  Gaines, 
Thomas  McBirney, 
Joseph  Myers, 
General  John  McMakin, 
L.  Laboyteaux, 
George  Bogen,  Jr. 


General  C.  H.  Sargent, 
Charles  Hartshorne, 
E.  N.  Fuller, 
J.  P.  Epply, 
J.  B.  Covert, 
Theodore  Cook, 
C.  W.  Rowland, 
Ambrose  W.  Neff, 
Joshua  H.  Bates, 


MILITARY. 
In  order  as  follows : — 

United  States  Troops,  from  Newport  Barracks. 

Volunteer  Uniform  Troops,  from  abroad. 
Volunteer  Uniform  Military  of  the  Third  Brigade,  First  Division, 

Ohio  Volunteer  Militia. 

Independent  Uniform  Military  Associations. 

Clergy,  in  carriages. 

Mexican  Volunteers. 

Independent  Guthrie  Grays,  Captain  W.  K.  Bosley. 

Masonic  Fraternity. 
Pall-Bearers.  Pall-Bearers. 


Judge  James  Hall, 
John  Swasey, 
Geo.  K.  Shoenberger, 
James  F.  Torrence, 
Dr.  0.  M.  Langdon, 
Dr.  J.  B.  Smith, 
Dr.  J.  D.  Dodge, 
General  James  Taylor, 
Larz  Anderson, 
William  J.  Schultz, 
Captain  C.  G.  Pierce, 
Joseph  Jones, 
William  Hoon, 
Joseph  Raper, 
C.  F.  Hanselman, 
C.  Moore. 


cc 


N.  W.  Thomas, 
Judge  Van  Hamm, 
Captain  George  Hatch, 
James  Wilson, 
Dr.  A.  S.  Dandridge, 
Dr.  J.  F.  White, 
Dr.  George  Fries, 
Thomas  Porter, 
C.  W.  West, 
James  H.  Walker, 

E.  S.  Haines, 
C.  B.  Smith, 
John  D.  Jones, 
Bellamy  Storer, 

F.  Bodman. 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  311 


Relatives,  and  immediate  friends  of  deceased,  in  carriages. 

Officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 

Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Physicians  and  Medical  Societies. 

Judges  and  Officers  of  State  and  United  States  Courts. 

Governor  of  Ohio  and  suite. 

Pioneers  of  Cincinnati  and  Ohio,  in  carriages. 

Trustees  of  the  Common  Schools. 

Independent  Order  of  Red  Men. 

Mayor  and  Public  Authorities  of  Newport. 

Mayor  and  Public  Authorities  of  Covington. 

Mayor  and  Public  Authorities  of  Cincinnati. 

Steamboat  Association. 

Turners'  Society. 

Independent  Order  of  Odd-Fellows. 

Officers  and  Members  of  the  Y.  M.  M.  L.  Association. 

Cincinnati  Chamber  of  Commerce. 

United  Irish  Association. 
Butchers'  Benevolent  Association. 
Citizens  in  procession  not  attached  to  any  association. 
Societies  and  organizations  not  yet  reported,  and  participating,  will  be 
assigned  places  by  the  Grand  Marshal. 

The  procession  will  form,  at  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
general  obsequies,  on  Fifth  Street,  with  the  right  resting  on  Front  Street, 
displaying  east.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  remains,  they  will  be  received 
and  in  procession  escorted  east  on  Fifth  Street  to  Western  Row,  south 
on  Western  Row  to  Fourth  Street,  east  on  Fourth  Street  to  Broadway, 
south  on  Broadway  until  the  right  of  the  procession  shall  rest  at  Front 
Street,  where  the  column  will  halt,  and,  with  honors  paid  the  remains, 
be  dismissed  by  the  Grand  Marshal. 

All  associations  and  organizations  designated  in  the  programme  of 
procession,  and  others  intending  to  participate,  will,  on  the  morning  of 
the  funeral  obsequies,  report  themselves  through  each  others'  own  officer, 
or  marshal,  to  the  Grand  Marshal,  who  will  be  found  at  the  Mechanics' 
Institute  Building,  southwest  corner  of  Vine  and  Sixth  Streets,  up  to 
the  hour  of  formation  of  procession.  By  order  of 

THOMAS  H.  WEISNER,  F.  LINCK, 

BENJAMIN  EGGLESON,  JOSEPH  DARK, 

W.  S.  ELAGG,  JAMES  C.  HALL, 

JOSEPH  TORRENCE,  JOSEPH  K.  SMITH, 

W.  K.  BOSLEY,  G.  L.  FEBIGER, 

W.  B.  DODD,     '  C.  H.  SARGENT, 

JOHN  D.  JONES,  Committee  of  Arrangements. 


312  OBSEQUIES   OF 


At  twelve  o'clock  M.,  March  6,  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  Gene 
ral  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  funeral  obsequies  of  Dr.  E.  K. 
Kane,  to  receive  the  remains  of  the  lamented  dead  from  the  Louisville 
and  New  Albany  Committee,  in  whose  charge  they  were,  proceeded  to 
the  mail-boat  Jacob  Strader,  and,  placing  themselves  under  the  charge 
of  Captain  Blair  Summons  and  Dr.  Dunning,  at  one  o'clock  the  boat 
slipped  her  cables,  and  moved  off,  like  a  thing  of  life,  down  the  Ohio. 

The  Committee  consisted  of  the  following  gentlemen  : — 

THOS.  H.  WEASNER,  CHAS.  ANDERSON, 

JNO.  C.  SCHOOLEY,  GEO.  L.  FEBIGER, 

DR.  T.  N.  WISE,  E.  B.  REED. 

An  appropriate  badge  had  been  prepared  for  the  Committee,  of  which 
the  following  is  a  description : — 

FIDELIS  AD  URNAM. 


WE 
MOURN 

THE  DEATH  OF 


THE 

GREAT  EXPLORER,  RIPE  SCHOLAR,  AND  NOBLE 
PHILANTHROPIST. 

WHOSE    NAME 
ADDS  LUSTRE  TO  A  MIGHTY  NATION. 

HIS  MEiMORY 

SHALL   BE 

IMMORTAL  ! 

About  five  o'clock,  as  the  boat  proceeded  on  her  way,  she  was  met  by 
quite  a  heavy  snow-storm,  which  soon  whitened  the  shore  on  either  hand, 
and  reminded  the  Committee  forcibly  of  their  mission.  They  were  to 
receive  the  remains  of  one  who  had  battled  with  fiercer  snow-storms 
and  far  keener  blasts,  not  on  the  bosom  of  the  Ohio,  but  on  the  rough 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT   KANE.  313 


Arctic  seas, — not  in  the  midst  of  civilization,  and  in  sight  of  land,  but 
where  on  every  hand  naught  but  the  dreary  iceberg  and  a  frozen  sea 
encompassed  him.  What  more  fitting  herald  of  the  approaching  steamer 
which  bore  the  remains  of  the  great  Arctic  explorer  than  this  sudden 
March  snow-storm  ?  Each  one  of  the  Committee  felt  there  was  a  sig 
nificance  in  it  beyond  their  ken. 

The  Committee  at  first  disembarked  at  Warsaw,  expecting  that  it 
would  be  the  best  point  to  await  the  coming  of  the  Telegraph,  which 
bore  the  remains.  But  Captain  Summons  assured  them  that  he  would 
place  them  safely  on  board  the  Telegraph,  if  he  did  not,  as  he  anticipated, 
meet  her  at  Vevay,  when  the  Committee  again  placed  themselves  under 
his  charge,  and  in  a  short  time  had  the  satisfaction  of  reaching  Vevay 
just  as  the  Telegraph  was  rounding  to  at  that  point.  They  stepped  from 
one  boat  to  the  other,  and  were  received  by  the  Committees  from  Louis 
ville  and  New  Albany,  who  had  the  remains  in  charge.  The  following 
were  the  gentlemen  composing  said  Committees  : — 

On  behalf  of  the  Masonic  Fraternity  of  Louisville,  L.  T.  Sedgwick, 
Frank  Tryon. 

On  behalf  of  the  City  Council  of  Louisville,  Andrew  Monroe,  D. 
Sargant. 

On  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Louisville,  John  Barbee,  Mayor,  Dr. 
Flint,  Captain  P.  A.  Key. 

On  behalf  of  the  Masonic  Fraternity  of  New  Albany,  John  R.  Ca 
meron,  C.  M.  Johnstone,  F.  C.  Johnson,  G.  W.  Bartlett. 


RELATIVES  OF  THE  DECEASED. 

The  Cincinnati  Committee  was  then  introduced  to  the  relatives  of  the 
deceased,  consisting  of  three  brothers.  The  father  and  mother,  being 
well  advanced  in  years,  had  returned  to  Philadelphia,  it  being  thought 
unadvisa'ble  that  they  should  bear  the  fatigue  of  travelling  with  the 
corpse  of  their  son  at  the  slow  rate  which  was  rendered  necessary  in 
order  that,  at  different  points,  the  people  might  show  their  respect 
and  receive  the  remains  with  appropriate  honors.  The  eldest  of  the 
brothers, 

COLONEL   T.  L.  KANE, 

Is  said  to  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  deceased.  He  is  rather 
below  the  medium  height,  square  but  delicately  built,  with  an  expansive 
chest.  His  hair  is  dark  brown;  he  wears  small  side-whiskers,  with 


314  OBSEQUIES   OF 


mustache  and  goatee.  His  eye  is  piercing  and  dark.  Altogether,  his 
appearance  is  prepossessing,  and  he  looks  the  thorough  gentleman.  He 
is  apparently  in  delicate  health.  His  face  is  at  once  sad  and  impressive. 
By  profession,  Colonel  Kane  is  an  attorney.  His  age  is  thirty-two. 

ROBERT   P.  KANE. 

This  gentleman  is  somewhat  taller  than  his  brother,  Colonel  Kane, 
though  not  so  squarely  built.  He  is  rather  slender;  has  light  hair, 
blue  eyes,  wears  a  light  mustache,  and  has  the  air  of  a  gentleman  who 
has  mingled  much  in  society;  converses  fluently  and  well.  His  age  is 
about  thirty.  He  is  also  an  attorney. 

DR.  JOHN    K.  KANE. 

This  gentleman  is  the  largest  one  of  the  brothers,  but  is  not  above 
the  medium  height.  He  has  a  very  fresh  look,  and  is  the  blonde  of  the 
family.  He  has  an  open,  frank  countenance,  with  a  retiring,  unas 
suming  demeanor.  He  is  by  profession  a  physician,  and  is  connected 
with  the  Philadelphia  Hospital.  His  age  is  about  twenty-three. 

The  name  of 

WILLIAM    MORTON 

will  no  doubt  be  familiar  to  all  who  have  read  the  account  of  the  last 
Arctic  Expedition  under  the  command  of  the  lamented  Kane.  This 
gentleman  sailed  to  England  with  Dr.  Kane,  and  thence  to  Havana,  and 
now  accompanies  the  remains  to  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Morton  was  born  in 
Ireland,  but  left  his  native  land  at  a  very  early  age,  and  has  now  been 
in  America  about  seventeen  years.  He  first  became  acquainted  with 
Dr.  Kane  in  California,  and,  after  one  voyage  to  the  Polar  seas,  joined 
the  Arctic  Expedition  under  Dr.  Kane,  and  sailed  on  the  ill-fated  "  Ad 
vance/'  Mr.  Morton  was  the  one  who  volunteered  with  the  Esquimaux 
boy  to  go  north  in  search  of  the  open  sea,  and  after  a  circuitous  and 
fatiguing  route  of  three  hundred  miles,  dragging  their  sledges  over  the 
icebergs,  the  great  Polar  Sea  was  discovered,  and  the  noble  Morton  (in 
whom  every  one  will  become  interested  in  reading  Kane's  account)  is 
now  the  only  living  white  man  who  has  ever  beheld  the  great  open 
Polar  Sea,  whose  cold  waters  roll  and  toss  against  the  icebergs  of  the  far- 
distant  North. 

Mr.  Morton  is  now  but  thirty-five  years  of  age,  and  has  the  appear 
ance  of  one  who  could  well  undergo  the  fatigue  of  an  Arctic  winter, 
and  in  reply  to  a  question  if  he  had  any  desire  to  return,  he  said, 
"  Never,  unless  I  could  have  gone  with  my  old  comrade  the  doctor." 


DR.  ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  315 


RECEPTION  OF  THE  REMAINS  BY  THE  CINCINNATI 
COMMITTEE. 

The  different  Committees,  after  the  steamers  had  got  fairly  under  way, 
met  together  in  the  centre  of  the  cabin,  when  Mr.  "Weisner,  Chairman 
of  the  Cincinnati  Committee,  notified  the  Committees  of  Louisville  and 
New  Albany  that  the  Committee  which  he  had  the  honor  to  represent 
were  ready  to  receive  the  remains  of  the  deceased;  whereupon  Mr. 
Andrew  Monroe,  in  behalf  of  the  various  Committees,  made  the  follow 
ing  remarks : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  : — The  people  of  Louisville  and  New  Albany  are 
moved  by  the  same  melancholy  impulses  which  have  brought  you  here, 
and,  joining  their  voices  in  that  universal  wail  of  woe  which  has  gone 
up  from  one  end  of  our  bereaved  country  to  the  other,  in  consequence 
of  the  death  of  the  distinguished  devotee  of  knowledge  and  humanity, 
Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane.  Influenced  by  these  impulses,  and  cherishing 
a  holy  regard  for  the  now  lifeless  tenement  of  a  noble  soul,  and  for  the 
mourning  surviving  friends  and  relatives  who  accompany  it,  they  have, 
by  a  general  meeting  of  their  people,  their  municipal  authorities,  and  Ma 
sonic  Fraternity,  received  the  body  under  their  charge,  and,  after  paying 
that  honor  which  their  high  appreciation  of  Dr.  Kane's  great  qualities 
demanded,  have  intrusted  it  to  our  charge  as  their  Committee,  to  be  by 
us  transferred  to  the  people  of  Cincinnati.  As  the  organ  of  the  several 
Committees,  the  people,  municipal  authorities,  and  Free  Masons,  I  now 
commit  the  remains  to  your  charge,  as  the  representatives  of  your  city. 

Permit  me  to  say,  in  discharging  a  melancholy  duty,  mingled  with 
that  pleasure  which  we  always  feel  in  paying  our  honors  to  the  distin 
guished  dead,  that  the  people  of  Kentucky,  in  honoring  the  dead,  have 
conferred  honor  upon  themselves.  Those  States,  those  cities,  appreciate 
the  services  of  the  pioneer  in  discovery  and  martyr  to  humanity,  and, 
by  the  array  of  numbers  which  poured  forth  to  meet  his  remains  and 
escort  the  body  to  its  place  of  sepulture,  have  vindicated  their  title  to  all 
I  claim  for  them. 

It  is  peculiarly  appropriate  just  here  to  remind  each  other  of  the  cha 
racter  and  extent  of  the  services  we  are  approbating.  The  thousands 
who  moved  in  solemn  procession  through  the  streets  of  Louisville  to-day 
were  not  actuated  by  party  feeling  nor  by  a  love  for  military  renown. 
Other  ages  and  other  countries  have  vied  with  each  other  in  giving 


316  OBSEQUIES   OF 


costly  honors  and  grand  displays  of  pageantry  to  party  leaders  and  mili 
tary  heroes.  They  would  shower  wealth  and  applause  upon  their  living 
heads,  and  strew  their  paths  with  fragrant  flowers  and  cushions  of  velvet 
upon  which  to  press  their  royal  feet,  and  erect  costly  and  magnificent 
monuments  to  the  memory  of  victors  upon  battle-fields  and  in  senate- 
chamber  when  dead.  But  it  is  reserved  for  this  age  and  this  country 
to  shower  their  honors  and  distinguished  marks  of  esteem  and  enthu 
siastic  admiration  upon  one  neither  prominent  upon  the  battle-field  nor 
in  the  political  arena.  Here  we  have  city  after  city  pouring  out  by  thou 
sands  to  meet,  and  joining  in  grand  procession  to  escort  from  one  city 
to  another,  the  remains  of  a  man  who  never  fought  a  battle,  never  held  a 
seat  in  senate-chamber, — a  man  who  was  devoted  to  no  political  party. 
But  on  account  of  his  assiduous  devotion  to  science,  his  contributions  to 
the  general  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  the  pure  virtue  and  indomi 
table  energy  displayed  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  in  seeking  in  a  far-off 
land  the  lost  and  wrecked  inhabitants  of  another  country,  their  hearts 
are  filled  with  love  for  his  virtues,  and  by  their  acts  they  evidence  their 
pride  in  him  as  their  countryman.  It  speaks  well  for  the  taste  and 
character  of  our  people  when  we  see  such  regard  paid  the  disciples  of 
science, — to  honors  won  in  the  peaceful  but  laborious  investigations  into 
the  earth's  formation.  It  speaks  well  for  us  when  we  join  our  voices 
in  the  sentiment, — 

0  Peace  !  thou  source  and  soul  of  social  life, 

Beneath  whose  calm,  inspiring  influence 

Science  his  views  enlarges,  Art  refines, 

And  swelling  Commerce  opens  all  her  ports, 

Blest  be  the  man  divine  who  gives  us  thee  ! 

But,  quiet  and  monotonous  as  his  researches  may  seem  to  the  vulgar 
and  unappreciating,  the  labors  of  Dr.  Kane  proved  full  of  interest  to  him 
in  life,  and,  as  connected  with  his  death,  momentous  and  disastrous. 
The  warrior  whose  heart  is  pierced  by  the  glittering  steel  or  whose  head 
is  laid  low  by  the  whizzing  ball  falls  suddenly,  and  in  the  midst  of  an 
excitement  that  renders  death  almost  pangless.  But  toiling  and  labor 
ing  in  the  bleak  and  cheerless  wilderness  of  an  icy  ocean  or  snow- 
covered  land,  where  perpetual  winter  inflicts  perpetual  pain,  and  severe 
hardships  induces  a  slow  but  certain  death,  renders  the  martyr  yet 
more  worthy  of  sympathy  as  well  as  esteem.  To  this  climate  and  these 
causes  Dr.  Kane  owes  his  early  and  melancholy  death.  The  feeble  body 
with  which  nature  endowed  him  was  too  frail  a  support  for  the  vigor 
and  energy  of  his  genius;  and  thus  the  mind  wore  away  the  body. 


DK.    ELISHA  KENT   KANE.  317 


Genius  !  thou  gift  of  Heaven,  thou  light  divine, 
Amid  "what  dangers  art  thou  doom'd  to  shine ! 
Oft  will  the  body's  weakness  check  thy  force, 
Oft  damp  thy  vigor  and  impede  thy  course, 
And  trembling  nerves  compel  thee  to  restrain 
The  noble  efforts  to  contend  with  pain. 

The  people  of  Louisville  and  New  Albany,  having  paid  all  honor  the 
dearest  friend  of  Dr.  Kane  could  desire  to  his  memory,  and  escorted  his 
remains  thus  far  by  the  committee,  now  hand  over  to  you  the  lifeless 
body  of  a  noble  soul,  knowing  your  desire,  and  that  of  the  people  of 
Cincinnati,  to  discharge  your  melancholy  duty ;  and  that  from  your  people 
the  memory  of  the  deceased  will  be  as  fully  and  as  freely  honored  as  we 
have  honored  it,  in  the  marks  of  respect  we  have  endeavored  to  bestow. 

REMARKS  OF  CHARLES  ANDERSON,  ESQ., 

Upon  receiving ,  from  the  Louisville  and  New  Albany  Committees,  the 
remains  of  Dr.  Kane. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN: — In  behalf  of  the  Cincinnati 
Committees,  I  have  the  honor  to  receive  from  your  hands  the  remains 
of  our  deceased  fellow-countryman  and  fellow-man,  to  whose  memory,  sir, 
you  have  just  paid  a  tribute  at  once  so  fit  and  so  feeling.  As  you  have 
so  well  said,  successive  crowds,  from  cities,  towns,  and  farms,  in  a  long 
procession  wending  its  solemn  way  across  this  wide  land,  have,  of  their  own 
accord  and  as  individuals,  met  together  to  follow  this  dead  corpse  in  its 
last  voyage  on  the  way  to  its  tomb.  And  now,  to-night,  have  we  also  come 
together,  from  different  and  distant  States  and  cities,  midway  in  a  long 
route  of  its  river-travel,  and  upon  this,  at  once  the  dividing  and  uniting 
line  of  those  several  States, — you  to  surrender  and  we  to  receive  this  sad 
treasure  of  our  nation's  regard.  On  such  an  occasion,  is  it  not  meet,  my 
friends,  for  us  to  pause  a  moment  to  inquire,  Why  is  all  this  show  of  cere 
mony  and  this  general  and  spontaneous  expression  of  real  feeling  ?  This 
man,  whose  lifeless  form  is  the  object  of  such  emotions  and  such  pageantry, 
in  his  life  had  never  distinguished  himself  neither  on  the  bloody  battle 
field  as  a  warrior,  nor  as  a  statesman  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  nor  be 
fore  listening  and  applauding  multitudes  as  an  orator,  nor  yet  as  a 
founder  or  leader  of  any  sect  or  party  in  theology,  politics,  or  society. 
And  heretofore  our  countrymen,  too  much  following  in  the  beaten 
tracks  of  preceding  men  and  nations,  have  always  paid  their  deep 
homage  at  the  graves  and  to  the  memories  of  warriors,  statesmen,  and 
leaders  of  parties, — and,  alas  !  to  them  alone.  But  this  man  was  neither 
of  all  these,  as  the  world  estimates  these  things  :  he  lived  without  influ- 


318  OBSEQUIES    OF 


ence  and  died  without  power.  He  was  but  a  simple  and  earnest  devotee 
(in  all  of  his  short  span  of  life)  to  the  just  cause  of  science  and  humanity; 
and  he  died  their  common  martyr.  A  quiet  student  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  he  had  diligently  and  most  bravely  travelled,  and  explored, 
and  labored,  and  endured,  in  order  to  test  and  to  verify  those  propositions 
which  preceding  searchers  after  truth  had  published,  and  to  discover,  and, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  race,  promulge,  some  of  those  principles  which  had 
not  before  been  revealed.  Gentle,  self-sacrificing,  and,  like  all  truly  brave 
men,  tender-hearted,  he  pitied  the  lost  and  frozen  navigators  of  the 
Arctic  deserts,  of  land  or  ice  or  ocean,  and,  warmly  sympathizing  with 
the  bereaved  widow  and  their  kindred,  he  consecrated  his  mind,  his 
labors,  his  sufferings,  his  life  itself, — so  able,  so  arduous,  so  painful  and 
protracted,  so  precious  to  family,  to  friends,  to  country,  and  to  his  kind, 
— to  their  rescue.  And  such  only  was  Elisha  Kent  Kane. 

And  now,  my  'ends,  upon  the  death  of  this  man  whose  life  was  so 
short  and  so  inconspicuous,  what  do  we  behold  ?  Of  what  scene  indeed 
are  we  the  actors  or  spectators  ?  Villages,  towns,  cities,  and  the  inter- 
termediate  rural  homes,  pause  from  their  daily  labors  or  pleasures  and 
pour  a  long,  broad  stream  of  grieved  and  sincere  mourners  behind  his 
cofiin.  How  and  why  is  this  ? 

If,  my  friends,  he  had  conquered  great  and  rich  provinces  to  our 
commonwealth, — if  he  had  found  and  poured  into  our  private  or  national 
coffers  the  countless  wealth  of  gold  and  gems  from  Californian  or  Austra 
lian  mines, — if  he  had  sacrificed  himself  an  eager  victim  to  some  idea  or 
passion  on  which  had  clustered  and  crystallized  a  great  and  fanatic 
church  or  party, — if,  pursuing  the  vain  dreams  and  searches  of  the  classic 
ages,  he  had  discovered  the  fountains  of  perpetual  youth  and  beauty  in 
some  sequestered  ocean-isle  of  ceaseless  peace  and  joy, — then,  indeed, 
would  our  selfish  gratitude  teach  us  the  secret  of  our  grief.  But  his 
voyages  and  explorations  have  been,  to  the  exchequers  of  our  temporal 
and  material  interests  as  to  the  yearning  and  mourning  affections  of 
bereaved  kindred,  a  complete  failure.  He  brought  back  to  the  nation 
only  a  dreary  and  chilling  account  of  a  far-off  country,  over  whose  land 
and  air  and  waters,  amidst  wilderness-plains  of  snow  and  mountain- 
icebergs,  hoar  Winter  reigns  in  absolute  and  eternal  desolation.  And  to 
the  sad  and  wearied  heart  he  brings  neither  Franklin  nor  his  comrades, 
nor  any  trace,  or  clue,  or  tidings,  of  the  lost  and  loved  ones,  save  the 
frightful  assurances  of  that  keenest  suffering  from  frost  and  hunger 
through  which  they  lived,  in  which  they  died.  And  yet — and  yet — we 
mourn,  all  true  Americans  sadly  mourn,  this  man.  Nor  is  it  his  country- 


DR.    ELISHA  KENT   KANE.  319 


men  alone  who  shall  grieve  at  his  death.  England,  Europe,  Christen 
dom, — ay,  wherever,  upon  isle  or  continent,  or  afloat  upon  the  waters  of 
the  rivers,  lakes,  or  seas,  the  story  of  Kane's  voyages  and  life  shall  reach, 
(and  where  has  it  not?)  every  man  whose  mind  has  been  kindled  to  a 
love  of  knowledge,  or  whose  heart  retains  its  natural  love  toward  his 
brother-man, — will  rejoice  to  know  that  he  has  lived,  will  mourn  to  learn 
that  he  has  died. 

Now,  therefore,  my  friends,  may  we  not  in  some  confidence  reply  to 
our  question  ?  Is  it  because  our  country  and  our  age  (let  croakers 
say  what  they  will)  have  grown  wiser  and  better  than  other  lands  and 
former  ages  of  people,  that  a  scholar  and  a  philanthropist  is  thus 
deplored  ?  Let  us,  then,  so  uniting  our  sad  tones  in  these  funeral  rites 
over  the  dead,  take  consolation  from  these  scenes  of  solemnity,  and  rejoice 
to  believe  in  this  improvement  of  our  countrymen  and  our  fellow-men. 

In  conclusion,  gentlemen,  allow  me  to  express  to  yc  '-,  Tas  the  represen 
tatives  of  our  sister  cities,  our  admiration  of  the  taste  and  propriety  of 
your  proceedings  in  this  most  delicate  affair,  and  to  invite  you  all  most 
cordially,  as  well  in  your  individual  as  in  your  official  capacities,  to 
accompany  and  unite  with  us  in  those  ceremonials  which  it  may  be  the 
lot  of  our  city  and  citizens  to  control. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  A.'s  speech,  the  Cincinnati  Committee  was 
taken  down  to  the  forecastle  of  the  boat,  where  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane 
were>  and  took  formal  charge  of  the  body  from  the  hands  of  the  Joint 
Committees. 

THE  COFFIN. 

The  coffin  which  contained  the  embalmed  body  of  the  deceased  was 
enclosed  in  an  ordinary  box,  on  the  top  of  which  were  insignia  of 
Masonry,  consisting  of  apron,  gloves,  and  a  sprig  of  acacia.  Around  the 
whole  was  the  star-spangled  banner,  whose  ample  folds  covered  all  that 
was  mortal  of  the  early  and  gifted  dead, — Dr.  E.  K.  Kane. 

The  Telegraph  reached  her  wharf  at  this  city  at  her  usual  hour.  At 
six  o'clock,  the  steamer  Champion  came  alongside,  and  the  remains  were 
transferred  to  her  deck.  A  pedestal  appropriately  draped  had  been 
erected  on  the  forecastle,  upon  which  the  coffin  was  placed.  The 
steamer  then  started  down  the  river  until  she  arrived  at  Ludlow's  Point, 
where  she  landed  and  waited  until  the  minute-guns  announced  that  the 
Committees  were  ready  to  receive  the  remains.  She  then  started  for 
the  city,  and  landed  at  the  foot  of  Fifth  Street,  where  the  Committee 


320  OBSEQUIES   OF 


who  had  the  body  in  charge  delivered  it  to  the  pall-bearers,  some  twenty- 
four  in  number. 

THE  PROCESSION. 

The  procession  was  then  formed,  and  moved  in  the  order  as  published, 
through  the  various  streets  named.  The  military  was  well  represented, 
the  Masonic  Fraternity,  the  Pioneer  Association,  and  other  societies,  as 
enumerated  in  programme.  The  streets  through  which  the  cortege 
passed  were  lined  with  citizens,  both  old  and  young.  Many  of  the 
houses  were  draped  in  mourning,  and  in  several  places  banners  were 
stretched  across  the  streets  and  appropriately  draped. 

Lieutenant  Morton,  the  faithful  friend  of  Dr.  Kane,  who  stood  by  him 
while  living,  and  saw  him  breathe  his  last  sigh  and  closed  his  eyes  in 
death,  walked  immediately  behind  the  hearse  which  bore  all  that  was 
earthly  of  his  dear  commander,  until  it  reached  the  Little  Miami  Depot. 

The  remains  will  be  conveyed  to  Columbus  this  afternoon  by  the  cars  of 
the  Little  Miami  Railroad,  starting  at  six  o'clock,  at  which  place  they  will 
lie  in  state  at  the  Capitol  over  the  Sabbath.  From  thence  they  will  be 
conveyed  to  Wheeling,  and  on  to  Baltimore,  where  they  will  be  received 
by  the  citizens  of  the  Monumental  City  with  fitting  honors. 

In  conclusion,  we  can  but  express  the  gratification  we  feel  in  knowing 
that  our  citizens  have  united  as  one  man  in  showing  respect  to  the 
mortal  remains  of  one  who  belonged  to  no  party,  was  no  warrior  with 
sabre  stained  by  blood,  or  statesman  with  high-sounding  name,  but,  in 
the  language  of  one  whose  lips  are  wont  to  breathe  eloquent  words,  was 
a  voluntary  martyr  to  science  and  to  art. 

AT  THE  DEP6T 

The  procession  reached  the  dep6t  of  the  Little  Miam*  ailrond  Com 
pany  about  one  o'clock.  The  remains  were  placed  upon  a  bier  in  front  of 
the  depot,  where  they  were  honored  by  the  entire  column.  The  pall 
bearers  then  removed  the  body  to  the  car  which  was  to  bear  it  through 
the  State.  It  is  a  magnificent  express-car,  which  was  elaborately  hi;og 
inside  and  out  with  mourning-festoonery. 


CEEEMONIES  AT  COLUMBUS. 

A  few  minutes  before  meridian,  on  Friday,  March  6,  intelligence 
was  received  by  telegraph  from  Cincinnati,  that  the  remains  of  the  late 
Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane  would  pass  through  Columbus  on  their  way  toward 


DE.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  321 


Philadelphia;  that  they  would  reach  this  city  by  the  11.20  night  train, 
and  remain  until  the  departure  of  the  10.10  morning  train  of  the  Cen 
tral  Ohio  Road  on  Monday. 

Immediately  on  receipt  of  this  intelligence,  action  was  taken  on  the 
part  of  each  branch  of  the  Legislature  responsive  to  the  deep  feeling  of 
all  classes  of  the  people,  to  manifest  their  regard  for  the  character  and 
services  of  the  lamented  dead;  and  a  joint  committee  of  the  two  Houses 
was  appointed  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  to  accomplish  that 
object. 

The  Grand  Lodge  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  of  Ohio  was  convened 
in  special  Communication  by  order  of  the  Grand  Master  of  that  Frater 
nity,  and  a  committee  appointed  on  its  part  to  co-operate  with  such 
other  committees  as  might  be  appointed  to  make  suitable  arrangements 
for  the  occasion. 

At  an  early  hour  in  the  evening,  a  meeting  of  citizens  of  Columbus 
was  held  at  the  Neil  House,  and  a  committee  selected  to  act  in  behalf 
of  the  citizens  of  the  capital  of  Ohio  in  conjunction  with  other  similar 
committees  representing  other  organizations. 

At  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  a  joint  meeting  of  all  these  committees 
was  held  at  the  Neil  House ;  when  two  members  from  each  committee 
were  delegated  to  proceed  to  Xenia  on  the  morrow,  and  there  meet  the 
funeral  cortege  from  Cincinnati,  accompany  it  to  Columbus,  and  thence 
to  Wheeling. 

Another  like  committee  was  detailed  to  make  suitable  arrangements 
for  the  reception  of  the  remains,  for  respectful  care  for  them  during 
their  stay  in  the  city,  and  for  appropriate  religious  exercises  on  Sunday. 

The  State  Fencibles,  Captain  Reamy,  volunteered  such  services  as 
might  be  rer--  'red  of  them, — which  were  thankfully  accepted  by  the 
Joint  Committee. 

At  Xenia,  when  the  train  arrived  from  Cincinnati,  at  about  nine  o'clock 
P.M.,  the  throng  of  people  was  so  dense  and  so  promiscuous  as  literally 
to  takv,  possession  of  the  road  and  delay  the  departure  of  the  train, 
whereby  its  arrival  at  Columbus  was  postponed  to  a  few  minutes  past 
twelve  o'clock.  At  London,  and  other  places  along  the  route,  notwith 
standing  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  and  that  the  train  had  barely  time  to 
halt,  the  people  were  out  in  numbers  to  offer  their  spontaneous  tribute 
of  sympathy  and  respect. 

At  midnight  the  train  arrived  at  the  Columbus  station-house,  where 
the  Joint  Committee,  the  State  Fencibles,  and  a  large  concourse  of 
citizens,  were  awaiting  it.  The  stillness  of  the  midnight-hour,  the 

21 


322  OBSEQUIES  OF 


rolling  of  the  muffled  drum  as  the  remains  were  launched  from  the  car, 
the  tolling  of  the  bells  of  the  city,  the  solemn  strains  of  the  dead-march 
by  the  brass  band,  the  display  of  flags  at  half-mast,  as  seen  by  moon 
light,  the  respectful  silence  of  the  concourse  of  citizens  that  thronged 
the  street, — all  conspired  to  impart  to  the  scene  an  air  of  grandeur  and 
solemnity  seldom  witnessed.  The  solemn  procession,  accompanied  by  a 
civic  and  military  escort,  proceeded  to  the  Senate-Chamber,  where  due 
preparation  had  been  made  for  its  reception;  and  here  the  remains  were 
consigned  to  the  custody  of  the  Columbus  Committees,  in  the  following 
very  neat  address  from  Charles  Anderson,  Esq.,  on  behalf  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  Cincinnati : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  AND  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — A  few  weeks  ago, 
upon  a  green  and  golden  island  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  green  with  the 
verdure  of  perpetual  spring,  and  golden  in  the  warm  sunshine  of  a 
tropic  climate,  and  with  the  ever-ripe  and  ever-ripening  fruitage  of  an 
eternal  summer, — surrounded  by  every  circumstance  of  nature  and  of  art 
to  promise  and  to  insure  the  highest  and  purest  state  of  ease  and  health 
and  happiness  which  this  our  human  life  can  know, — there  lay,  languish 
ing  in  feebleness  and  agonizing  in  pain,  on  his  bed  of  mortal  sickness, 
a  youth  and  stranger.  And  over  his  starts  of  keen  spasms  and  the 
fever-dreams  of  his  faint  and  flickering  mind  there  watched  but  three 
sad  sentinels, — his  mother,  a  brother,  and  a  friend,  the  friend  and  com 
panion  of  all  his  labors  and  wanderings,  who  had  loved  him  almost  with 
the  fondness  and  constancy  of  a  mother  and  with  the  manly  attachments 
of  fraternal  feeling. 

This  feeble  and  suffering  invalid  had  begun  life  in  a  country  far 
distant,  under  a  climate  far  different,  and  with  a  natural  constitution 
which  promised  a  wholly  dissimilar  state  of  health.  But  a  spirit  of 
restless  though  persistent  enterprise  for  knowledge  and  usefulness  and 
fame  had  seized  upon  his  earliest  youth,  and  had  drawn  his  swift  and 
willing  feet  from  this  our  new  and  Western  continent  into  the  far  sunrise 
lands  and  islands  of  the  olden  hemisphere,  among  our  very  antipodes.  In 
the  cause  of  knowledge  he  had  searched  the  tiger-peopled  jungles  and 
the  dark  and  dank  morasses  of  India  and  China,  and  he  had  hung  sus 
pended  mid-air  in  the  gaping  throat  of  a  mountain-volcano,  over  a  red-hot 
lake  of  liquid  and  molten  metals  and  minerals,  which  for  ages  and  cen 
turies  uncounted  and  countless  had  been  seething,  unseen  by  man 
and  unchallenged  by  science,  like  a  vast  caldron  of  hell,  over  its  infernal 
fires. 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  323 


In  the  cause  of  his  country  he  had  as  it  were  "  taken  the  wings  of 
the  morning  and  flown  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea."  Leaving 
that  land  of  the  East  and  those  pursuits  of  civic  enterprise,  he  reappeared 
almost  like  magic,  armed  and  plumed  for  war  in  the  Valley  of  Mexico 
and  upon  our  side  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  And  there  did  he  signalize  his 
courage  and  address  in  battle  as  much  as  his  most  chivalric  humanity 
and  magnanimity  to  his  foes  and  his  prisoners. 

And,  in  the  cause  of  science  mingled  with  benevolence,  again  and 
again  had  he  torn  himself  from  the  dear  land  of  his  birth  and  from  the 
dear  mother  who  bore  him,  disparting  the  prized  links  which  made  that 
chained  and  charmed  circle  around  the  genial  warmth  of  the  family 
hearth  and  the  purest  piety  of  the  family  altar,  to  explore  among  the 
icebergs  of  the  untracked  Arctics  and  amidst  the  desolations  of  a  still 
bleaker  barbarism. 

From  the  West  to  the  East,  and  from  the  East  to  the  farthest  West 
again,  from  the  Equator  almost  to  the  Northern  Pole,  and  from  the  Pole  to 
the  Equator,  following  and  crossing  all  the  latitudes  and  longitudes, 
circumnavigating  and  re-circumnavigating  the  great  globe  itself,  did 
this  pilgrim  of  science,  this  knight-errant  of  benevolence,  thus  devote 
himself  to  the  help  of  his  fellow-man  and  to  the  improvement  of  his 
fellow-men.  And  now  do  we  see  him,  laid  panting  with  his  pain,  and 
languishing  in  his  weakness,  the  tortured  and  sacrificed  victim  of  his 
herculean  task,  the  dying  martyr  to  his  early  passion  and  his  lifelong 
toils.  And  so  lived  and  so  died  Elisha  Kent  Kane  !  And  then, — a 
pale,  thin,  cold  corpse,  without  sense,  or  pulse,  or  motion,  with  no  glance 
to  kindle  and  beam  forth  from  the  filmed  eye,  with  no  thought  to  thrill 
like  electricity  through  the  chilled  brain,  with  no  kindly  emotion  to 
warm  and  make  happy  the  stilled  and  silent  heart, — there  in  Cuba  lay 
his  remains, — the  dust  and  ashes  of  that  once  bright  and  busy  life, 
now  burned  out  into  blank  and  endless  darkness. 

And  is  this,  then,  all  there  is  of  life?  Is  the  scene  of  this  drama  now 
closed  forever  ?  And  can  such  a  life  and  death  teach  us  no  more  than 
this  simple  and  painful  lesson, — that  dust  and  ashes  and  tears  is  the  end 
as  well  of  men  as  of  their  works  ?  Alas  !  alas  !  even  so  !  And  yet,  my 
friends,  it  were  not  well  to  submit  in  dogged  despondency  to  a  faith  so 
cheerless  and  so  cold.  Let  us,  with  our  simple  memories,  retrace  this 
short  story  in  its  mere  detail  of  facts  through  these  last  days  and  weeks 
to  the  present  hour.  Let  us,  indeed,  by  our  reason  and  fancy,  "  follow 
it,  with  modesty  enough,  and  likelihood  to  lead  it,"  through  the  hours, 
days,  weeks,  months,  years,  ages, — ay,  centuries, — to  come.  We  too  may 


324  OBSEQUIES   OF 


find  our  explorations  not  in  vain.  Like  the  subject  of  these  meditations, 
we  too  may  find  our  faith  and  hope  in  God  and  man  revived  and 
renewed  to  a  higher  and  holier  reverence  and  love. 

Recurring  to  that  sad  scene  in  Havana,  we  see  these  few  friends  of 
the  departed  slowly  and  silently  starting  with  his  remains  for  their 
common  country  and  their  family  home.  They  bid  adieu  to  the  kind 
strangers  of  that  foreign  island.  They  cross  the  Gulf  and  land  upon 
our  own  shores,  among  strangers  to  themselves  and  to  the  deceased. 
And  what  now  occurs  ?  The  whole  population  of  New  Orleans, — without 
any  appeals  from  a  party  press,  (for  he  had  been  no  partisan,)  without 
the  incitements  of  a  sectarian  zeal,  (for  he  had  been  of  no  sect,)  without 
any  of  that  wild  and  fervid  enthusiasm  which  a  victorious  war  ever 
excites,  (for  he  had  been  no  conqueror,  crowned  with  that  wreath  of 
green  and  red,  of  bays  and  blood,  which  so  stirs  the  hearts  of  all  men,) 
without  the  warm  impulses  of  mere  simple  patriotism  to  arouse  them, 
(for  his  known  labors  had  not  been  those  of  a  mere  patriot,  but  he  had 
lived  and  died  as  a  man  and  for  mankind,) — in  the  absence  of  all  these 
the  usual  causes  of  popular  feeling,  that  entire  people,  each  man,  woman, 
and  child  acting  outwardly  from  the  living  sentiment  within,  all  arose 
as  one  man  to  join  in  the  sad  solemnities  of  that  funeral  train  which 
trails  with  undiminished  woe  across  a  continent.  And  so,  my  friends, 
has  it  been  from  that  hour  to  this, — from  New  Orleans  by  all  the  shores 
of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio  Rivers,  and  along  the  lines  of  the  rail 
road  to  Columbus ;  and  so  will  it  be  from  Columbus  to  Philadelphia. 
Not  the  small  devoted  band  who  wept  and  prayed  over  his  dying  pillow, — 
not  the  absent  family,  perplexed  with  various  hopes  and  fears,  and 
grieved  by  that  sorrow  which  makes  the  sad  heart  sore, — not  the  usual 
circles  of  kindred,  schoolmates,  and  friends, — mourn  alone  for  this 
departed  youth.  But  cities  and  peopled  States — ay,  a  nation's  millions 
of  minds  and  hearts — have  perceived  the  depth  of  their  loss,  and  have 
felt  and  uttered  a  spontaneous  sympathy  with  this  august  and  solemn 
pageant.  Our  nation  has  suffered  a  national  bereavement.  And,  more, 
the  whole  nation  feels  it  as  such.  Not  only  so  :  unless  we  greatly  mis 
conceive  the  signs  of  these  times,  civilized  mankind,  without  distinctio 
of  tongue  or  nation,  will  feel  this  loss  of  a  true  and  real  man. 

And  now,  my  friends,  may  we  not  pause  to  ask  ourselves  whether 
this  unforced  and  earnest  regret  of  a  whole  nation,  and  almost  of  the 
whole  race,  for  the  loss  of  a  mere  youth,  whose  fame  was  only  the  fresh 
reward  of  genius  in  science  and  of  enterprise  in  benevolence,  does  not 
betoken  a  new  and  better  era  in  the  world's  history  ?  All  nations  and 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  325 


ages  have  mourned,  with  grand  and  gloomy  pomp,  the  dead  heroes  and 
monarchs  of  mankind.  But  here  is  the  first  instance,  in  all  history, 
where  simple  mind  with  simple  goodness,  guided  by  zeal  and  energy  to 
gentle  and  kindly  ends,  have  been  at  once  recognised  as  constituting  a 
character  worthy  to  be  honored  by  all  when  living  and  to  be  mourned 
by  all  when  dead.  I  know  not  how  others  may  feel ;  but,  as  an  Ameri 
can,  I  am  proud  of  my  country,  that  she  has  contributed  to  the  world's 
long  line  of  true  heroes  and  martyrs  such  a  character  as  Kane.  But  I 
am  prouder  far  that  all  her  classes,  whether  of  rich  or  poor,  learned  and 
unlearned,  old  and  young,  of  both  sexes,  have  been  thus  proved  capable 
in  mind  and  heart  truly  to  appreciate  and  warmly  to  feel  a  nation's  loss. 
And,  as  a  man,  I  feel  proudest  of  all  that  this  age  is  worthy  to  have  had 
such  a  real  hero,  and  is  both  able  and  willing  to  recognise  and  acknow 
ledge  him  whilst  he  was  with  it  and  of  it.  Heretofore,  such  characters 
have  only  been  fully  valued  by  the  generations  coming  after  them. 

As  for  the  memorials  necessary  to  perpetuate  his  fame  and  purity  of 
character,  let  us  not,  my  friends,  concern  ourselves  for  them.  They,  like 
these  passing  ceremonies  in  which  we  now  unite,  may  honor  us.  They 
touch  not  him,  nor  can  affect  his  fame.  His  monument  is  in  the  imperish 
able  works  of  his  own  mind  and  heart  and  hands.  More  durable  than  mar 
ble,  more  touching  than  poetry,  sweeter  than  music,  hour  after  hour,  day 
by.  day,  for  years  and  decades  and  ages — ay,  centuries  of  ages  to  come 
(unless  men  shall  cease  to  read) — shall  his  glowing  pages  excite  for  him 
self  and  his  theme  the  enthusiastic  admiration  and  love  of  mankind. 
Let  these,  then,  the  living,  the  undying  thoughts  of  his  various  and 
mighty  mind,  let  the  impulses  of  his  gentle  and  generous  heart,  which 
so  inspired  him  to  great  activities,  to  patient  endurances,  and  to  bravest 
deeds, — be  these  records  his  monument.  And  if  an  earthly  and  material 
memento  more  than  this  love  and  fame  impressed  upon  the  universal 
mind  and  heart  be  necessary  to  perpetuate,  not  his  glory,  but  the  world's 
fitting  remembrance  of  him,  then  let  nature,  or  something  most  like 
nature, — let  something  the  most  closely  associated  with  his  works  and  life 
and  death, — bespeak  at  once  the  world's  truest  honor  and  purest  taste. 

And  there,  upon  the  crystalline  shores  of  that  Polar  sea,  that  green 
and  liquid  solitude,  broad  as  the  Atlantic  and  lonely  as  Sahara, — shut 
in,  through  all  the  earth's  ages,  from  the  uses  or  the  visits  of  man,  by 
wide  wastes  of  snow  and  vast  mountains  of  solid  and  unmelting  ice,  re 
posing  still,  as  it  has  ever  reposed,  in  the  calmness  of  its  own  cold,  serene, 
primeval  purity  and  peace,  with  its  smooth  bosom  never  furrowed  by  any 
keel,  never  shadowed  by  any  sail,  and  (oh,  sad  and  sweet  exception  to 


326  OBSEQUIES  OF 


the  cruel  annals  of  our  race !)  never  stained  by  human  blood, — there,  at 
the  margin  of  that  clear  mirror  of  the  circumpolar  sky,  whose  blazing 
constellations,  those  stars  that  never  set,  circling  in  their  smooth  and 
constant  orbits  forever  around  and  above  it  and  its  crystal  horizon, 
seem  fondly  to  behold  themselves,  the  brightest  glory  of  all  the  skies, 
truly  reflected  in  it,  the  purest  spot  of  all  the  earth, — there,  on  such  a 
shore,  by  such  a  sea,  under  such  a  sky,  henceforth  and  forever  so  asso 
ciated  in  the  whole  human  mind  with  his  name, — there,  on  some  brave 
precipice,  let  there  stand 

"A  pyramid  of  lasting  ice, 
Whose  polish'd  sides,  ere  day  has  yet  begun, 
Shall  catch  theirs*  glow  of  the  unrisen  sun, 
The  last  when  it  shall  sink,  and  through  the  night 
The  charioteers  of  Arctos  whe|l  ever  round 
Its  glittering  point" 

And — though  few  or  none  of  all  the  myriads  of  men  living  and  to  live 
might  ever  have  the  courage  to  look  up  at  that  sapphire  wedge  of  ever- 
during  ice  keenly  piercing  the  calm  sky  of  a  semi-annual  day,  or  glister 
ing  now  in  the  sheen  of  the  circumpolar  starlight,  and  anon  coruscated 
with  the  more-than-rainbow  beauties  and  glories  of  the  Aurora-efful 
gences — to  me  it  would  seem  a  most  apt  and  tender  fancy,  that,  though 
unseen,  mankind  should  ever 

"  Feel  that  it  is  there." 

With  this  brief  and  imperfect  expression  of  those  thoughts  and  feel 
ings  which  have  been  suggested  and  excited  by  these  most  touching  and 
appropriate  ceremonies,  at  deep  midnight,  and  in  this  grand  and  now 
most  solemn  temple  of  our  State's  majesty,  permit  me,  sir,  as  the  organ 
of  the  Committees  from  Cincinnati,  now  and  here  to  surrender  to  your 
watchful  care  and  to  your  heartfelt  reverence  these,  the  earthly  remains 
of  Elisha  Kent  Kane. 

William  Dennison,  Esq.  responded,  on  behalf  of  the  Columbus  Com 
mittee,  in  a  very  appropriate  address. 

A  detachment  of  the  State  Fencibles  was  then  detailed  by  Lieutenant 
Jones,  as  a  guard  of  honor,  which  remained  on  duty  while  the  remains 
were  in  the  Senate-Chamber,  except  while  relieved  by  a  like  guard  de 
tailed  for  the  purpose  from  members  of  the  Masonic  Fraternity.  The 
remains  lay  in  state  in  the  Senate-Chamber  from  one  A.M.  on  Sunday  until 
nine  A.M.  on  Monday. 

i 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  327 


By  ten  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning,  the  citizens  began  to  wend  their 
way  to  the  Senate-Chamber,  which  had  been  judiciously  arranged  by 
Mr.  Ernshaw,  the  draughtsman,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  greatest 
practicable  number  of  persons.  By  eleven  o'clock,  the  spacious  hall  was 
densely  packed,  when  Colonel  Kane,  Robert  P.  Kane,  Esq.,  Dr.  John  K. 
Kane,  Jr.,  brothers  of  the  deceased,  and  Lieutenant  William  Morton,  his 
faithful  companion  in  his  perilous  voyages,  entered,  and  were  conducted 
to  seats  reserved  for  them. 

The  religious  exercises  at  the  Capitol  consisted  of — 1st,  Prayer,  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Steele,  of  the  First  Congregational  Church.  2d.  Music, 
by  the  choir  of  that  church,  executed  with  great  judgment  and  skill. 
3d.  Discourse,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hoge,  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church.  4th.  Anthem,  by  the  choir.  5th.  Collects  and  Benediction, 
by  Rev.  Mr.  La  Tourrette,  of  St.  Paul's  (Episcopal)  Church. 

Notice  was  given  that  the  Senate-Chamber  would  be  open  from  two 
to  five  o'clock,  to  aiFord  the  citizens  opportunity  to  pay  their  mournful 
tribute  of  respect  to  the  ashes  of  the  dead ;  and  thousands  of  all  classes 
and  conditions  gladly  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity, — when  the 
doors  were  closed,  and  the  silence  of  the  chamber  was  broken  only  by 
the  tread  of  the  guard  of  honor  left  on  duty. 

PKAYEE 

Offered  ly  REV.  J.  M.  STEELE,  on  the  occasion  of  the.  Funeral  Solem 
nities,  while  the  remains  of  DR.  KANE  lay  in  state  in  the  Senate- 
Chamber,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

0  God  !  thou  art  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living.  Thou 
art  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob.  We  do  not  all  die : 
the  body  perishes,  but  the  soul  lives.  A  day  is  coming  when  the  earth 
and  the  sea,  the  rocks  and  the  ice,  will  give  up  their  dead.  The  scene 
before  us  brings  to  our  remembrance  the  promise  of  the  resurrection. 
We  have  come  hither  to  pay  our  last  respects  to  the  earthly  remains  of 
one  of  whom  when  living  we  had  all  heard,  and  whom  we  had  learned 
to  love  and  revere.  Thy  thoughts  are  not  our  thoughts,  nor  are  thy  ways 
our  ways,  Lord  God  Almighty :  thou  didst  hold  him  in  thy  hand  when 
wind  and  waters  and  all  nature  were  against  him.  Thou  didst  bear  him 
through  storm,  and  cold,  and  darkness,  and  famine,  and  fear,  and  didst 
set  him  down  in  safety  upon  the  deck  of  the  Release.  And,  when  the 
cheers  of  his  countrymen  welcomed  him  back  to  the  social  world  of  love 
which  they  represented,  hope  elevated  and  joy  brightened  his  crest. 


328  OBSEQUIES   OF 


Long  had  he  trod  the  ice-foot  in  safety.  Through  two  Arctic  winters 
God  had  kept  him.  And  in  the  third,  under  the  mild  light  of  a  genial 
clime,  before  the  returning  sun  had  gilded  the  topmast  of  the  Advance 
in  her  ice-bound  home,  the  floes  yielded  beneath  his  feet  and  he  passed 
into  the  eternal  sea. 

His  sun  went  down  at  noon.  But  age  is  not  measured  by  the  number  of 
years  :  wisdom  is  the  gray  hair  unto  a  man,  and  an  unspotted  life  is  old  age. 

Bear  with  us,  0  Lord,  if  in  our  addresses  to  thee  we  make  mention 
of  the  virtues  of  him  whose  loss  we  deplore.  For  he  acknowledged  God  as 
the  author  of  his  powers,  and  it  was  a  part  of  his  wisdom  to  know  whose 
gift  he  was.  Much  had  he  seen,  and  known,  and  done.  His  feet  had 
touched  the  soil  of  every  continent  on  the  globe,  and  his  temples  had 
been  laved  in  the  waters  of  every  sea.  His  life  was  a  voyage  of  disco 
very.  Already  the  benefit  of  his  labors  is  felt,  more  or  less,  in  every 
country.  His  plans  were  original,  and  as  full  of  humanity  as  they  were 
of  genius.  He  had  been  endowed  with  superior  powers  both  of  mind 
and  body,  and  where  others  perished  he  survived.  But  the  silver  cord 
is  loosed  at  last,  the  golden  bowl  is  broken,  the  pitcher  is  broken  at 
the  fountain,  and  the  wheel  is  broken  at  the  cistern.  The  dust  will 
return  to  the  earth  as  it  was ;  but  the  spirit  has  returned  unto  God  who 
gave  it.  The  shades  of  a  more-than-Arctic  night  have  settled  on  his 
dust, — a  night  that  knows  no  day ;  but  the  spirit  is  bathing  in  the  mellow 
light  of  day, — a  day  that  knows  no  night. 

The  Advance  is  in  the  ice,  the  Eric  is  in  ashes,  the  Hope  is  on  a  far- 
distant  shore,  the  Faith — the  "  precious  relic" — is  in  possession  of  his 
country,  and  Kane  is  in  heaven.  He  will  need  the  craft  no  more,  for 
now  he  walks  with  the  Evangelists  upon  the  crystal  and  stable  sea. 

The  accurate  scholar,  the  generous  commander,  the  thoughtful  Chris 
tian,  has  passed  from  our  sight  and  beyond  all  human  rescue.  The 
faithful  cables  which  held  him  through  so  many  storms  have  yielded  their 
strands  at  last.  He  has  seen  and  crossed  the  "open  sea,"  and  already 
there  have  burst  upon  his  view  the  splendors  of  the  city  of  God.  And 
we  trust  he  has  found  those  for  whom  he  went  out  to  look,  safely  moored 
by  those  happy  shores  where  the  sun  never  sets  and  the  waters  never 
freeze. 

And  now,  0  righteous  Lord,  as  we  remember  the  mourners,  we  must 
pray  for  the  world.  His  relatives  are  the  children  of  men.  We  seem 
to  see  him  standing  upon  the  slope  of  the  glacier  in  the  Arctic  summer, 
pointing  to  the  nations  and  saying,  "  Behold  my  mother  and  my  brethren." 
But  his  mother  has  closed  his  eyes  in  their  last  sleep,  and  the  mourners 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  329 


go  about  the  streets  of  every  city  in  the  civilized  world.  Genius  will 
preside  at  his  obsequies,  and  Learning  will  weep  at  his  grave.  Oh,  let 
us  trust  that  the  stroke  of  death  which  has  borne  him  from  us  has  not 
left  science  and  the  dignified  charities  of  human  nature,  as  it  were, 
orphans  upon  the  world. 

To-day,  for  a  few  minutes,  the  rays  of  the  sun  will  fall  upon  the  deck 
of  the  Advance;  but  her  master  has  gone  to  a  land  where  they  have  no 
need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon  to  shine  in  it,  for  the  glory  of  God 
doth  lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof. 

And  now,  0  God,  preside  in  these  funeral  solemnities.  Speak  through 
him  who  will  address  us.  And  prepare  us  all  for  a  meeting  with  those 
who  have  gone  before  us,  and  with  one  another,  in  that  future  world  of 
which  we  read  in  thy  word.  For  it  is  a  bright  and  happy  country,  "and 
the  nations  of  them  which  are  saved  shall  walk  in  the  light  of  it." 

Most  merciful  Father,  hear  our  prayer,  through  the  merits  and  media 
tion  of  thy  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 

THE  SUBSTANCE  OF  A  DISCOUESE 

ON    THE 

\ 

DEATH  OF  E.  K.  KANE, 

Delivered  in  the  Senate-Chamber,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  March  8, 1857. 

BY  REV.  JAMES  HOGE,  D.D. 

PASTOR  OF  THE  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  COLUMBUS. 


"  So  teach  us  to  number  our  days  that  ice  may  apply  our  hearts  to  icisdom." 

PSALM  xc.  12. 

We  are  assembled  to  remember  the  life  and  lament  the  death  of  one 
who  has  attained  high  distinction  among  his  countrymen.  His  name 
and  actions  and  worth  are  known,  also,  far  beyond  the  limits  of  this 
nation, — even  throughout  the  civilized  world.  It  is  true  that  the  honors 
we  give  to  his  memory  cannot  affect  him ;  but  it  will  be  profitable  to  us 
— to  the  living — to  recall  to  memory  his  life,  and  record  our  impressions 
of  his  worth,  under  the  influence  of  that  truth  of  God  which  teaches  us, 
and  impresses  us  with  a  just  view  of  the  brevity  and  uncertainty  of  life, 
and  directs  our  attention  to  a  right  improvement  of  the  time  which  is 
allowed  to  us  in  the  present  state  of  existence. 

Such  instruction  is  given  in  the  text  in  a  few  plain  words ;  and  it  is 


330  OBSEQUIES    OF 


the  more  forcible  that  it  is  expressed  in  the  form  of  a  prayer  to  God, 
who  has  endowed  us  with  life  and  all  its  advantages,  for  our  welfare  now, 
and  for  our  safety  and  happiness  in  another  and  future  world.  On  this 
subject  we  ought  to  think,  to  reason,  to  feel,  to  act,  as  those  who  must  be 
judged  by  Him  who  now  sustains  us  in  life  and  will  ere  long  call  us  to 
a  solemn  account. 

The  brevity  of  life  is  universally  acknowledged;  and  yet  we  are  apt 
to  feel  and  act  as  if  it  were  without  an  end.  In  one  hour  we  confess 
and  complain  that  our  days  are  few  and  evil,  and  in  the  very  next  hour 
we  forget  our  confession  and  live  as  if  we  had  no  apprehension  of  death. 
This  is  not  wise.  It  is  not  even  consistent  with  worldly  prudence.  In 
all  our  views  and  feelings,  in  all  our  enterprises,  we  ought  to  remember 
that  our  time  is  short. 

Our  days  are  numbered  and  appointed  to  us.  And  what  is  their  num 
ber  ?  "  Very  many/'  answers  the  busy  worldling  who  is  immersed  in  the 
pursuits  and  cares  of  life,  the  careless  spendthrift  whose  pleasures  now 
engross  him,  and  hopes  of  other  days  of  gratification  lie  before  him  in  pros 
pect.  "  Almost  innumerable/'  cries  gay,  sanguine,  thoughtless  Youth. 
"Why  should  I  now  even  think  their  number  will  ever  run  out  ?"  And  hoary 
Age,  too,  can  dream  of  days,  and  months,  and  years  before  him,  which  may 
yet  serve  him  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  earth  or  heaven,  or  both.  But 
what  is  the  true  account  given  by  experience  and  confirmed  and  applied 
by  Holy  Scripture  ?  "  The  days  of  our  years  are  threescore  years  and  ten ; 
and  if  by  reason  of  strength  they  be  fourscore  years,  yet  is  their  strength 
labor  and  sorrow."  And  now,  what  are  these  few  years  in  comparison 
with  the  thousand  years  of  those  who  lived  before  the  flood, — or  with 
the  long  lapse  of  time  from  the  creation  to  the  final  judgment, — or  with 
the  far  longer  duration  of  eternity  ?  A  span ;  a  handbreadth ;  a  passing 
present  hour. 

The  word  of  God  speaks  in  this  wise  respecting  our  days  on  earth : — 
"For  what  is  your  life  ?  It  is  even  a  vapor,  which  appeareth  for  a  little 
time  and  then  vanisheth  away."  "  In  the  morning  it  flourisheth  and 
groweth  up;  in  the  evening  it  is  cut  down  and  withereth."  "The  days 
of  the  years  of  my  pilgrimage  have  been  few  and  evil,"  said  aged  Jacob 
in  answer  to  the  question  "  How  old  art  thou  ?"  When  we  look  back, 
the  time  which  is  past  seems  very  short ;  but  when  we  look  forward,  the 
coming  time  promises  to  be  long.  The  first  view  is  truth,  the  latter  is 
delusion.  We  saw  the  beginning  of  the  past,  but  we  cannot  see  the  end 
of  the  future, — if  a  future  in  this  life  remains  to  us.  As  our  life  is  short, 
so  is  its  movement  swift, — rapid  as  the  motion  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit. 


DR.    ELISHA.   KENT   KANE.  331 


How  careful,  then,  should  we  be  to  number  correctly  the  few  rapid  days 
of  our  mortal  life  ! 

Uncertainty  also  enters  into  the  correct  estimate  of  human  life.  That 
the  hour  of  our  death  will  come,  we  know  with  absolute  certainty;  and 
we  are  equally  sure  that  it  will  soon  arrive.  We  may  live  the  threescore 
years  and  ten  allotted  to  man  as  the  ordinary  length  of  old  age;  but  how 
few  continue  so  long !  Perhaps  one  of  a  hundred.  Often  a  day,  a 
month,  a  year,  or  a  score  of  years,  is  all  that  is  given  us  as  the  number 
of  our  days.  Death  comes,  our  life  is  cut  off,  and  we  are  gone,  and  shall 
be  here  no  more  forever.  In  the  natural  world,  very  often  there  comes  a 
frost,  a  blast, — and  the  bud  is  blighted,  the  flower  is  withered,  the  unripe 
fruit  is  cast  worthless  on  the  ground.  The  sun  rises  and  sets  regularly 
at  his  appointed  times ;  but  the  sun  of  our  short  life  may  go  down  at 
noon,  or  in  the  morning,  and  so  may  not  reach  the  evening  of  repose 
and  preparation  for  an  eternal  day  on  which  multitudes  found  their  reso 
lutions  and  hopes  of  happiness  in  time  and  eternity.  All  we  can  say 
with  confidence  is,  that  the  lesson  which  is  taught  by  the  history  of  the 
world  is  true :  we  may  live  a  day,  a  year,  or  a  series  of  years,  or  we  may 
not.  Death  will  come ;  and  he  snatches  away  budding  infancy,  buoyant 
youth,  vigorous  manhood,  as  well  as  decrepit  age ;  and  at  times  and  dates 
unforeseen  he  bears  away  all  as  his  lawful  prey.  Truly,  our  pilgrimage 
here  is  a  journey  along  a  way  beset  with  dangers,  in  a  world  which  is  a 
land  of  yawning  graves, — the  one  great  city  of  the  dead.  We  may  plan 
and  labor  for  a  year,  an  age  yet  future ;  we  may  calculate  for  other 
results  than  we  have  secured  by  our  efforts ;  we  may  hope  for  other  hap 
piness  than  we  have  yet  enjoyed  :  but  death,  with  ruthless  stroke,  buries 
all  in  the  dust.  The  very  care  we  take,  the  precautions  we  adopt,  the 
means  we  employ,  that  we  may  live  long  on  the  earth,  may  be  the  occa 
sion  or  the  cause  of  hastening  us  to  the  end  of  our  portion  of  time  and 
launching  us  on  the  boundless  ocean  of  eternity.  Uncertain,  indeed, 
to  us,  is  the  tenure  by  which  we  hold  our  life.  It  is  perfectly  known  to 
God,  fixed  and  determined  in  his  foreknowledge  and  purpose,  but  hidden 
from  us  and  concealed  in  the  impenetrable  darkness  of  the  future.  No  eye 
of  mortal  can  see  in  that  darkness,  no  wisdom  search  out  the  inscrutable 
future.  "  Go  to,  now,  ye  that  say,  To-day  or  to-morrow  we  will  go  into  such  a 
city,  and  continue  there  a  year,  and  buy  and  sell,  and  get  gain  :  whereas  ye 
know  not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow."  "  Ye  know  not  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth."  "Watch,  therefore,  for  ye  know  not  what  hour  your  Lord 
doth  conie."  "Be  ye  ready,  also,  for  your  Lord  may  come  at  an  hour 
when  you  look  not  for  him."  Life  is  uncertain ;  death  is  certain.  "  It 


332  OBSEQUIES  OF 


is  appointed  to  all  men  once  to  die,  and  after  this  tlie  judgment." 
Dream  not  that  friends  or  physicians,  strength,  or  wisdom,  or  goodness, 
can  <lelay  your  departure  "hence. 

Life,  short  and  uncertain  as  it  is,  most  manifestly  is  nevertheless  long 
enough  for  the  great  end  for  which  it  is  given,  on  the  condition  that  we 
so  number  our  days  and  consider  our  end  as  to  improve  the  present 
time  wisely  and  faithfully.  On  this  account,  the  end  for  which  life  is 
given,  it  is  infinitely  important  to  every  one  of  us.  It  is  of  incalculable 
value  with  reference  to  ourselves  and  to  others,  and  to  the  purposes  of 
God.  To  ourselves,  as  we  are  rational  beings,  moral  agents,  susceptible 
of  constant  improvement  and  real  enjoyment,  even  in  our  present  mortal 
condition,  being  capable  of  continued  existence,  of  intellectual  and 
moral  cultivation,  of  vigorous  and  wisely-directed  action,  it  is  desirable 
to  live  as  long  as  Heaven  shall  please  to  continue  us  in  this  condition. 
We  know,  we  feel,  that  we  differ  in  this  respect  from  the  mere  animal, 
and  we  are  sensible  that  there  is  much  good  in  our  present  state, 
although  we  are  exposed  to  dangers  and  adversities  and  must  bear 
afflictions.  And,  in  taking  aright  the  number  of  our  days,  we  should 
inquire  diligently  what  we  ought  to  be  and  do  in  this  life  for  our  own 
proper  advantage.  If  we  improve  our  time,  our  powers,  our  opportuni 
ties,  as  we  may  and  ought  to  improve  them,  if  we  choose  and  pursue 
the  true,  the  pure,  the  good,  in  respect  of  principle  and  conduct,  and  if 
we  reject  and  avoid  the  false  and  the  evil,  it  will  be  our  real  advantage. 
Such  attainment  will  be  to  us  far  better  than  wealth  and  pleasure. 

But  especially  is  life,  whether  long  or  short,  of  infinite  worth  to  every 
one,  as  it  has  a  definite,  decisive,  certain  reference  to  a  future  life.  We 
are  immortal  beings,  destined  to  a  future  and  endless  existence  beyond 
this  life,  beyond  death,  beyond  time.  As  certainly  as  we  die,  we  shall 
live  again.  And  we  are  placed  and  continued  in  this  world  as  the  intro 
ductory  stage  of  our  existence.  The  character  which  we  form  here  will 
determine  our  character  hereafter,  as  certainly  as  the  nature  of  the 
infant  man  shall  still  be  the  nature  of  the  mature  man.  Our  conduct, 
too,  in  this,  life,  will  be  the  subject  of  our  future  and  final  account  and 
the  ground  of  our  endless  recompense.  A  period  of  probation,  however 
short,  may  properly  be  the  basis  of  retribution.  And  probation  under 
grace  may  be  as  justly  and  certainly  decisive  as  probation  under  law.  Now 
the  gospel  is  preached  to  us ;  we  are  called  to  repentance  toward  God 
and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  may  be  saved, —  saved 
from  our  sins  and  delivered  from  the  wrath  of  God,  and  be  made  new 
creatures  and  heirs  of  eternal  life.  Our  eternal  happiness  depends  on 


DR.  ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  333 


thus  applying  our  hearts  to  wisdom.  There  is  no  other  salvation,  no 
other  way  of  eternal  life,  no  other  Savior,  no  other  method  of  receiving 
salvation.  If  we  are  thus  saved,  all  is  well;  if  we  neglect  this  salvation, 
all  is  lost.  And  it  is  now,  while  life  continues, — here,  in  this  world,  the 
place  of  our  gracious  probation, — that  we  may  be  saved,  prepared  to 
die  and  to  enter  into  that  rest  which  remains  for  the  people  of  God. 
" Behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time;  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 
"  Hear,  and  your  souls  shall  live." 

During  our  days  on  earth  we  may  do  much  for  the  welfare  of  others. 
God  has  made  us  social  beings.  This  is  seen  in  our  very  nature  as 
moral  agents,  and  in  our  whole  condition  as  intelligent,  active  beings. 
The  social  principle  is  universal,  and  strong,  and  practical,  as  a  part  of 
our  moral  nature ;  and  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  implanted  in  us  are 
manifest  in  the  numerous  and  various  relations  among  men.  These  are 
domestic,  and  civil,  and  religious.  On  this  principle  it  is  that  men 
universally  are  the  subjects  of  reciprocal  influence  for  good  or  for  evil. 
As  no  man  is  made  for  himself  alone,  but  all,  in  some  important  sense, 
for  others  also,  as  for  themselves,  there  are  mutual  duties,  which  are 
obligatory,  and  by  the  performance  of  which  we  may  be  useful  to  each 
other ;  or,  if  we  neglect  those  duties  which  are  founded  on  these  relations, 
or  act  contrary  to  them,  we  inflict  injury  and  are  worthy  of  blame. 
How  careful,  then,  should  the  heads  and  members  of  the  family  be  in 
doing  good  and  not  evil  to  each  other  in  the  family  according  to  exist 
ing  relations  !  And  with  what  rectitude  and  truth  and  benevolence 
should  the  members  of  society  act  toward  one  another  for  mutual 
advantage !  Especially  as  we  have  mutual  influence,  and  live  together, 
in  this  our  short  uncertain  day,  with  reference  to  a  future,  eternal  con 
dition,  as  has  been  already  said,  we  ought  to  promote  the  spiritual  and 
eternal  welfare  of  others,  by  all  proper  practicable  means,  even  as  our 
own.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  "Do  good  to  all 
men  as  you  have  opportunity,  and  especially  to  them  who  are  of  the 
household  of  faith."  Remember,  the  time  is  short,  the  night  is  at  hand 
wherein  no  man  can  work.  And  who  can  tell  in  how  great  a  degree  the 
present  and  future  welfare  of  children  may  be  affected  by  the  example, 
the  whole  conduct,  of  parents? — to  what  extent  the  character  and  state 
of  neighbor  by  his  neighbor,  of  inferiors  by  superiors,  of  the  higher  also 
by  the  lower,  and  of  future  generations  by  the  present  generation  ? 
Combining  such  'views  of  our  true  welfare  and  our  usefulness  to  our 
fellow-men,  we  learn  the  value  of  life,  short  and  uncertain  as  it  is,  and 


334  OBSEQUIES   OF 


we  become  sensible  of  the  necessity  of  "  applying  our  hearts  diligently 
to  wisdom, — that  wisdom  which  is  profitable  to  direct." 

This  wisdom  is  taught  by  divinely-revealed  truth,  and  is  to  be  sought 
from  Him  who  is  the  Father  of  lights.  It  is  designed  and  suited  to 
secure  our  fulfilment  of  the  wise  and  benevolent  and  holy  purposes  of 
Heaven  concerning  our  present  and  future  condition.  These  designs  of 
God  shall  all  be  accomplished.  "  God's  counsel  shall  stand,  and  he  will  do 
all  his  pleasure."  But  it  is  by  means  that  he  ordinarily  effects  his  will; 
and  these  means  are,  in  respect  of  our  life  and  destiny,  our  own  purposes 
and  works.  We  are  instruments  in  respect  of  our  dependence  and  sub 
jection  to  God,  and  we  are  agents  in  respect  of  liberty  and  power  of 
choice  and  action.  Fatal  necessity,  as  well  as  blind  chance,  is  excluded 
from  the  administration  of  the  divine  government :  all  is  fixed  and 
regular,  yet  all  is  just,  benevolent,  and  wise.  Of  this  government  we 
are  the  rational  subjects  j  under  it  we  have  the  allotment  of  our  days, 
and  find  our  duty  and  happiness  in  applying  our  hearts  to  true  wisdom, 
under  the  direction  of  Providence,  the  instruction  of  truth,  and  the  help 
and  guidance  of  grace.  Then  let  us  live  that  we  may  be  ready  to  die, 
as  those  who  have  wisely  lived,  hoping  for  pardon  and  acceptance  and 
eternal  life  through  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ.  And  let  us 
humbly  and  earnestly  beseech  God  to  enable  us  by  his  grace  so  to  number 
our  days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts  to  wisdom. 

Under  the  influence  of  such  sentiments  respecting  life  and  its  duties 
and  advantages  and  responsibilities,  let  us  pause  at  the  side  of  the  grave, 
and  remember  the  life,  while  we  lament  the  death,  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane, 
whose  mortal  remains  now  lie  before  us.  Why  does  a  nation  mourn  his 
removal  ? — nay,  why  do  the  enlightened,  the  philanthropic,  the  scientific, 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  lament  the  loss  ?  His  character,  his 
aims,  his  deeds,  although  he  marched  not  at  the  head  of  armies  nor  sat 
on  a  throne,  answer  the  inquiry. 

He  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  February  3,  1822,  and  consequently  at 
his  death  in  Cuba,  February,  1857,  was  a  few  days  over  the  age  of 
thirty-five  years.  I  will  not  attempt  a  narrative  of  his  life  (this  must 
be  left  to  better-qualified  friends)  further  than  to  say  that,  having  been 
liberally  educated,  and  having  studied  medicine,  he  entered  the  United 
States  service  as  surgeon  in  the  navy,  and  in  this  capacity  was  attached 
to  the  first  mission  from  our  Government  to  China.  Then  he  visited  also 
the  islands  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  some  portions  of  the  continent  of 
Asia, — likewise  also  portions  of  Africa  and  Europe.  His  actions  and 
adventures  in  his  extensive  travels  I  need  not  recite.  On  his  return, 


DR.   ELISIIA   KENT   KANE.  335 


avoiding  ease  and  indulgence  at  home,  he  entered  our  squadron  on  the 
African  coast,  and  visited  the  slave-stations,  and  was  about  to  make  a 
journey  of  exploration  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  but  was  hindered  by 
severe  disease.  Afterward  he  was  connected  with  the  coast-survey,  and 
engaged  in  the  service  of  his  country  in  Mexico  during  the  war,  and 
after  its  close  returned  with  a  high  character  for  enterprise  and  humanity 
and  science. 

At  this  time  the  first  Grinnell  Expedition  was  in  preparation  •  and  he 
engaged  with  characteristic  ardor  and  energy  in  the  enterprise  designed 
generally  for  Northern  exploration  and  particularly  for  discovering  the 
fate  of  Sir  John  Franklin.  In  the  second  Grinnell  Expedition  for  the 
same  purposes,  the  command  was  assigned  to  him,  and  after  an  absence 
of  two  years  he  returned,  and  gave  to  the  public  a  full  narrative  of  all  he 
had  endured  and  accomplished.  The  hardships  and  exposure  he  suffered 
during  this  voyage  brought  on  him  the  disease  which  laid  him  on  the 
bed  of  death  in  the  midst  of  his  days.  His  character  and  his  deeds  will 
perpetuate  his  memory. 

He  was  a  man  of  genius.  Possessing  in  a  high  degree  the  powers  of 
conception,  comparison,  and  scientific  analysis,  with  strong  imagination 
and  poetic  fancy,  he  was  fitted  by  nature  for  those  enterprises  which 
demand  a  master-mind.  In  every  walk  of  life  he  must  have  been  con 
spicuous,  and  especially  as  he  had  the  power  of  concentrating  his 
faculties  on  any  object  to  which  he  was  devoted.  Great  energy,  unrest 
ing  activity,  strenuous  effort,  always  directed  by  good  sense  and  sound 
judgment,  were  manifest  in  every  part  of  his  life  from  his  earliest 
years.  And  he  was  also  persevering  and  patient  and  hopeful  in  the 
greatest  difficulties  and  discouragements. 

Courage  of  the  highest  kind  was  a  prominent  trait  of  his  character, — 
physical  courage  which  no  danger  could  appall, — moral  courage,  not  often 
in  any  high  degree  united  with  physical,  which  no  enemies  could  daunt, — 
courage  such  as  fits  a  man  for  great  deeds  at  the  head  of  armies,  on  the 
throne  of  power,  and  equally  in  the  labors  and  difficulties  and  dangers 
of  discovery  by  land  or  sea.  And,  besides,  when  exposed  to  trials  and 
sufferings  in  which  energy  and  courage 'avail  little,  he  had  fortitude  to 
bear  to  the  utmost  limit  of  endurance.  Thus  endowed  with  those  quali 
ties  which  constitute  the  basis  of  greatness,  he  attracted  the  notice  and 
secured  the  confidence  of  those  who  knew  him.  He  was  not,  however, 
stern  and  rigorous.  Kindness  entered  into  the  constitution  of  his  cha 
racter  equally  with  energy  and  bravery.  Generous,  humane,  compas 
sionate,  he  who  never  was  overcome  by  dangers  and  difficulties  and 


336  OBSEQUIES   OF 


sufferings  which  were  his  own  was  ready  to  sink  at  the  view  of  the  suffer 
ings  of  others  who  were  under  his  care  :  he  could  even  conquer  enemies 
who  were  arrayed  in  battle  against  him,  and  then  at  the  risk  of  his  life  pro 
tect  them,  when  prisoners,  from  the  rage  of  his  own  associates  in  arms. 

To  complete  his  character,  we  may  add — and  we  may  be  highly  gratified 
to  be  able  to  add — that  all  his  high  characteristics  were  elevated  and 
governed  by  sound  and  thorough  moral  principle,  and  sanctified  by  the 
influences  of  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  which  reveals  and  offers  to  us 
Jesus  the  Christ  of  God  as  in  all  things  a  Savior.  And  nothing  can 
more  fully  exhibit  nis  true  character  than  the  three  rules  which  he 
established  when  he  began  his  second  expedition  : — 

Implicit  and  unvarying  obedience  to  orders. 

Entire  abstinence  from  intoxicating  liquors. 

Daily  devout  worship  of  God,  in  all  circumstances. 

In  conclusion,  while  we  remember  with  due  esteem  the  life  and 
services,  to  humanity  and  science,  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  lament  his  appa 
rently-premature  death,  let  us  go  on  to  the  end  of  our  course  fulfilling 
our  duties  with  diligence  and  fidelity.  And  let  us  all,  now  and  at  all 
times,  lift  up  our  hearts  to  God  with  the  prayer,  "  So  teach  us  to 
number  our  days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts  to  wisdom. " 


CONCLUDING  PRAYERS  AND  BENEDICTION, 

BY  REV.  JAS.  A.  M.  LA  TOURRETTE, 

HECTOR   OF    ST.  PAUL'S    CHURCH,    COLUMBUS. 


In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death.  Of  whom  may  we  seek  for 
succor  but  of  thee,  0  Lord,  who  for  our  sins  art  justly  displeased  ? 

Yet,  0  Lord  God  most  holy !  0  Lord  most  mighty  !  0  holy  and  most 
merciful  Savior  !  deliver  us  not  into  the  bitter  pains  of  eternal  death. 

Thou  knowest,  Lord,  the  secrets  of  our  hearts  :  shut  not  thy  merciful 
ears  to  our  prayers ;  but  spare  us,  Lord  most  Holy,  0  God  most  mighty, 
0  holy  and  merciful  Savior.  Thou  most  worthy  Judge  Eternal,  suffer 
us  not,  at  our  last  hour,  for  any  pains  of  death  to  fall  from  thee. 

Almighty  God,  with  whom  do  live  the  spirits  of  those  who  depart 
hence  in  the  Lord,  and  with  whom  the  souls  of  the  faithful,  after  they 
are  delivered  from  the  burden  of  the  flesh,  are  in  joy  and  felicity :  we 
give  thee  hearty  thanks  for  the  good  examples  of  all  those  thy  servants 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  337 


who,  having  finished  their  course  in  faith,  do  now  rest  from  their  labors. 
And  we  beseech  thee  that  we,  with  all  those  who  are  departed  in  the 
true  faith  of  Thy  holy  name,  may  have  our  perfect  consummation  and 
bliss,  both  in  body  and  soul,  in  thy  eternal  and  everlasting  glory,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  Amen. 

0  merciful  God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the 
resurrection  and  the  life,  in  whom  whosoever  believeth  shall  live,  though 
he  die,  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  him  shall  not  die 
eternally ;  who  hath  also  taught  us,  by  his  holy  apostle  St.  Paul,  not  tc 
be  sorry,  as  men  without  hope,  for  those  who  sleep  in  him  :  we  humbly 
beseech  tfree,  0  Father,  to  raise  us  from  the  death  of  sin  unto  the  life 
of  righteousness,  that  when  we  shall  depart  this  life  we  may  rest  in 
him,  and  that  at  the  general  resurrection  in  the  last  day  we  may  be 
found  acceptable  in  thy  sight,  and  receive  that  blessing  which  thy  well 
beloved  Son  shall  then  pronounce  to  all  who  love  and  fear  thee,  saying, 
"  Come,  ye  blessed  children  of  my  Father,  receive  the  kingdom  prepared 
for  you  from  the  beginning  of  the  world."  Grant  this,  we  beseech 
thee,  0  merciful  Father,  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Mediator  and 
Redeemer.  Amen. 

Almighty  and  merciful  God !  we  humbly  supplicate  thy  fatherly  com 
passion  in  behalf  of  those  parents  whom,  in  thine  unsearchable  wisdom, 
thou  hast  bereaved  of  their  son.  Look  upon  them,  0  Lord,  in  mercy. 
Sanctify  this  affliction  to  their  good.  Deepen  within  them  a  sense  of  the 
shortness  and  uncertainty  of  human  life ;  and  let  thy  Holy  Spirit  lead 
them  through  this  vale  of  misery  in  holiness  and  righteousness  all  the 
days  of  their  lives.  Increase  in  them  true  religion ;  nourish  them  with 
all  goodness,  and  of  thy  great  mercy  keep  them  in  the  same,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  Amen. 

Assist  us  mercifully,  0  Lord,  in  these  our  supplications  and  prayers, 
and  dispose  the  way  of  thy  servants  toward  the  attainment  of  everlast 
ing  salvation,  that,  among  all  the  changes  and  chances  of  this  mortal  life, 
they  may  ever  be  defended  by  thy  most  gracious  and  ready  help,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  Amen. 

Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy  name  :  Thy  kingdom 
•come  :  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven :  Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread :  And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  those  who 

22 


338 


OBSEQUIES   OF 


trespass  against  us :  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation :  But  deliver  us 
from  evil.     Amen. 

BENEDICTION. 

The  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  keep  your  hearts 
and  minds  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God,  and  of  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  And  the  blessing  of  God  Almighty,  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  among  you,  and  remain  with  you  always. 
Amen. 

On  Monday,  at  nine  o'clock,  a  procession  was  formed  in  the  following 
order,  and,  with  solemn  music  by  the  band  from  Cincinnati  and  Goodman's 
brass-band,  with  tolling  of  bells  and  other  appropriate  tokens  of  sorrow, 
proceeded  to  the  railroad-station,  whence  a  portion  of  the  Joint  Committee 
proceeded  with  the  remains  to  the  city  of  Baltimore, — where,  by  an 
appropriate  address  by  Professor  S.  M.  Smith,  M.D.,  they  were  delivered 
to  a  committee  appointed  from  that  city  for  their  reception. 

ORDER  OF  PROCESSION. 

Chief  Marshal. — Lucian  Butler. 
Assistant  Marshals. — Richard  Nevins,  H.  M.  Niel,  Walter  C.  Brown. 

Cincinnati  Band. 

State  Fencibles. — Captain  Reamy. 

Columbus  Cadets. — Captain  Tyler. 

American  Flag. 

PALL-BEARERS.  PALL-BEARERS. 


Medical  Profession. 
Dr.  Wm.  M.  Awl, 
Dr.  R.  Thompson, 
Dr.  S.  Parsons, 
Dr.  R.  Patterson, 
Dr.  S.  M.  Smith, 
Dr.  John  Dawson. 


Masons. 

W.  B.  Hubbard,  P.G.M. 
W.  B.  Thrall,  P.G.M. 
N.  H.  Swayne,  M.M. 
G.  Swan,  ESQ.  P.G.O. 
Dr.  L.  Goodale,  P.G.T. 
D.  T.  Woodbury,  M.M. 


Lieutenant  Morton,  of  the  Kane  Expedition. 

Committee  to  accompany  the  remains  to  Wheeling. 

Cincinnati  Committee  of  Arrangement. 

Columbus  Committee  of  Arrangement. 

Relatives  of  the  deceased,  in  carriages. 

Reverend  Clergy. 

Goodman's  Band. 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  339 


Grand  Lodge  of  the  Masonic  Fraternity  of  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Governor  of  Ohio  and  Staff. 

Heads  of  Departments,  and  other  State  Officers. 

The  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Medical  Profession. 

City  Council  of  Columbus. 

Mayor  and  City  Officers. 

Firemen. 

Judges  and  Officers  of  Court. 
Citizens  generally. 


CEKEMONIES  AT  BALTIMORE. 

On  March  10,  Baltimore  discharged  a  solemn  duty  in  honoring  the 
remains  of  the  lamented  Dr.  Kane.  Upon  no  occasion  had  her  citizens 
united  more  generally  or  with  a  greater  earnestness  of  purpose  in  mani 
festing  their  appreciation  of  distinguished  worth  and  eminent  services. 
The  arrangements  for  the  obsequies  were  well  designed,  and  the  one  pur 
pose  that  animated  those  who  participated  in  them  and  the  vast  throng 
called  out  to  witness  their  occurrence  gave  to  the  scene  an  impressive 
and  grand  solemnity. 

From  the  Camden  station  to  the  Maryland  Institute  Hall,  the  streets 
were  walled  with  people,  whilst  windows,  balconies,  and  roof-tops  were 
occupied  by  spectators.  Through  this  dense  mass,  preserving,  in  spite 
of  its  denseness,  a  quiet  decorum  that  was  in  itself  the  most  fitting  tes 
timonial  of  the  occasion,  the  well-arranged  and  imposing  procession 
passed,  gathering  up  the  good-will,  affection,  and  respect  which  the  popu 
lation  entertained  for  the  noble  soul  that  once  animated' the  cold  remains 
now  passing  onward  to  their  final  resting-place.  A  juster  tribute,  more 
fittingly  expressed,  never  engaged  the  participation  of  her  citizens. 

From  the  moment  the  remains  reached  the  Ohio  River  and  were 
placed  in  the  cars  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  Company,  they 
have  been  regarded  as  committed  to  the  especial  guardianship  of  Balti 
more. 

CROSSING  THE  OHIO. 

The  remains  of  the  distinguished  Arctic  explorer,  Dr.  Elisha  K. 
Kane,  reached  Bellair  on  Monday  afternoon,  having  come  direct  through 
from  Columbus,  Ohio,  where  they  had  lain  in  state  in  the  Capitol  over 


340  OBSEQUIES    OF 


Sunday,  the  use  of  which  had  been  tendered  by  the  Governor  as  a  mark 
of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased. 

The  remains  were  deposited  in  a  car  prepared  for  the  purpose  by  order 
of  the  President  of  the  Central  Ohio  Railroad,  festooned  with  black 
inside  and  out,  with  white  rosettes ;  and  the  locomotive  drawing  the 
train  was  likewise  trimmed  with  badges  of  mourning. 

On  reaching  Bellair,  a  large  number  of  persons  were  collected  to  pay 
a  passing  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  and  the  body  was 
removed  from  the  cars  to  the  steamer  "Blue  Dick,"  preparatory  to  cross 
ing  to  Benwood,  amid  every  demonstration  of  the  kindliest  feeling  by  all 
present.  The  flag  of  the  steamer  was  draped  at  half-mast,  and  the  saloon 
hung  in  mourning,  in  which  a  cenotaph  was  raised  on  which  to  rest  the 
coffin.  Whilst  crossing  the  river  the  bells  of  the  steamer,  and  of  all  the 
locomotives  at  the  railroad-stations  on  either  side,  were  tolled,  the  scene 
being  one  of  the  most  impressive  character. 

On  reaching  Benwood,  the  remains  were  conveyed  from  on  board  the 
steamer  to  a  car  prepared  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  in  which 
to  convey  them  to  Baltimore!  It  was  prepared  especially  for  the  purpose, 
and  was  shrouded  with  the  badges  of  mourning  both  inside  and  out. 

Among  those  who  crossed  the  Ohio  and  entered  the  cars  to  accompany 
the  remains  to  Baltimore  were  the  Cincinnati  and  Columbus  Committees, 
consisting  of  the  following  gentlemen  : — 

Committee  from  Cincinnati. — H.  H.  Robinson,  Gr.  S.  Bennett. 

Committee  from  Columbus. — L.  Butler,  Dr.  S.  M.  Smith,  Dr.  A.  S. 
McMillen,  S.  Long,  E.  F.  Rhinehart,  Captain  J.  0.  Remy,  E.  H. 
Nichols,  Hon.  E.  B.  Langdon,  J.  G.  Neal. 

The  Committee  represents  the  military,  the  Masons,  and  the  citizens 
of  Columbus. 

There  was  also,  accompanying  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane,  an  uncle  of 
the  deceased,  and  John  J.  Kane,  Jr.,  his  brother. 

The  officers  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  and  the  Central  Ohio 
Railroad,  at  both  Bellair  and  Benwood,  extended  every  attention  to  the 
family  and  committee,  with  the  freedom  of  their  roads  going  and  re 
turning. 

The  Ohio  Committees  reported  that  at  Zanesville,  and  all  the  principal 
stations  on  the  Central  Ohio  Railroad,  the  people  assembled  in  great 
numbers,  and  stood  uncovered  while  the  train  was  passing,  whilst  at 
some  points  the  station-houses  and  dwellings  by  the  side  of  the  road 
were  draped  in  mourning,  indicative  of  the  deep  and  wide-spread  feeling 
of  admiration  that  prevailed  for  the  character  and  services  of  the 
deceased,  and  the  heartfelt  sorrow  for  his  early  demise. 


DR.  ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  341 


DISAPPOINTMENT  AT  WHEELING. 

The  announcement  received  at  Wheeling,  on  Saturday  evening,  that 
the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  would  lie  over  on  Sunday  at  the  State  Capitol 
in  Columbus,  was  a  sad  disappointment,  as  extensive  arrangements  had 
been  made  to  pay  a  passing  tribute  to  his  memory.  The  Masonic  fra 
ternity,  the  Odd-Fellows,  the  military,  the  six  fire-companies,  and  the 
citizens  generally,  had,  in  anticipation  of  the  body  passing  through  that 
city  and  remaining  there  over  Sunday,  made  preparation  for  its  proper 
reception  and  an  expression  of  the  general  feeling  of  the  community  in 
honor  of  the  memory  of  the  deceased.  Indeed,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Wheeling  would,  if  opportunity  had  offered,  have  equalled  any  other 
city  on  the  route  in  an  appropriate  expression  of  the  national  grief  for 
the  loss  t)f  so  distinguished  a  citizen. 

CROSSING  THE  MOUNTAINS. 

The  train,  with  the  remains,  and  the  Committee,  and  relatives  of  Dr. 
Kane,  left  Benwood  at  half-past-five  o'clock  on  Monday  evening,  and 
amid  the  darkness  of  night  sped  its  way  across  the  mountains.  There 
was,  therefore,  but  little  opportunity  for  the  people  to  make  any  demon 
stration,  though  a  large  number  were  collected  at  all  the  stations  to  see 
the  passing  train. 

At  Fairmount  the  train  stopped  half  an  hour  for  supper,  at  nine  o'clock 
at  night;  and,  notwithstanding  the  lateness  of  the  hour  and  the  severity 
of  the  weather,  a  large  portion  of  the  citizens  were  at  the  depot,  and  all 
the  bells  in  the  town  were  tolled  whilst  the  train  remained. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  night  they  passed  along  through  the 
mountain-gorges  without  further  incident.  Cumberland  was  passed  just 
before  daybreak,  a  large  number  of  persons  being  at  the  dep6t  at  that 
early  hour.  At  the  stations  east  of  Cumberland  there  were  various 
marks  of  respect  shown  the  train  as  it  passed. 

RECEPTION  BY  THE  BALTIMORE  COMMITTEE. 

At  half-past  six  o'clock  on  Tuesday  morning  the  train  reached  Martins- 
burg,  where  a  large  number  of  citizens  with  the  Baltimore  Committee 
were  in  waiting.  The  remains  were  then  formally  transferred  to  the 
charge  of  the  following  gentlemen,  comprising 


342  OBSEQUIES   OF 


THE  BALTIMORE  COMMITTEE. 

HON.  W.  GILES,  BENJ.  DEFORD,  ESQ., 

JOHNS  HOPKINS,  ESQ.,  WM.  H.  YOUNG,  ESQ., 

PROF.  CAMPBELL  MORFIT,  SAMUEL  SANDS,  ESQ., 

COL.  THOMAS  CARROLL,  WENDELL  BOLLMAN,  ESQ. 

/ 

After  a  short  delay,  during  which  a  large  number  of  the  citizens  of 
Martinsburg  viewed  the  remains  with  mournful  interest,  the  train  pro 
ceeded  on  its  way. 

At  Harper's  Ferry  there  was  also  a  large  and  silent  assemblage  of 
spectators,  as  was  also  the  case  at  Ellicott's  Mills  and  all  the  inter 
mediate  stations. 

ARRIVAL  IN  BALTIMORE. 

The  train  which  was  due  in  Baltimore  at  ten  o'clock  was  an  hour 
behind  time,  and  on  reaching  the  Camden  Station  an  immense  concourse 
of  persons  were  assembled  to  witness  the  removal  of  the  remains  of  the 
distinguished  deceased  from  the  cars,  among  whom  were  a  goodly  number 
of  ladies  and  children,  who  had  remained  nearly  two  hours  in  waiting. 

The  car  in  which  the  body  was  deposited  was  festooned  with  black, 
and  the  locomotive  bore  a  flag  draped,  whilst  black  streamers  were  float 
ing  from  different  parts  of  the  engine. 

A  detachment  of  the  Independent  Grays  were  in  attendance,  under 
command  of  Sergeant  John  Gibson,  who  acted  as  a  guard  to  the  coffin 
in  its  transportation  from  the  car  to  the  station-house,  where  a  suitable 
catafalque  draped  in  mourning  was  erected  in  the  centre  of  the  large 
hall,  on  which  it  was  placed  and  left  in  charge  of  the  military  detach 
ment. 

The  anxiety  to  see  the  coffin  was  very  great,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
close  the  hall.  Marshal  Herring  was  in  attendance,  with  a  large  force, 
to  preserve  the  regulations  adopted  by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Immediately  on  the  arrival  of  the  train  at  the  dep6t,  the  bell  of  the 
First  Baltimore  Hose-Company  commenced  tolling,  which  was  responded 
to  by  the  bells  throughout  the  city,  and  continued  up  to  the  closing  of 
the  ceremonies  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

The  hall  of  the  new  dep6t,  in  which  the  remains  reposed  until  the 
moving  of  the  procession,  had  been  appropriately  draped  in  mourning, 
under  the  direction  of  William  Prescott  Smith,  Esq.,  an  intimate  and 
much-loved  friend  of  the  deceased,  who,  being  an  officer  of  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Road,  had  given  his  personal  attention  and  effort  to  all  the 
arrangements  for  the  transfer  of  the  body  from  Bellair  to  Baltimore. 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  343 


THE  PROCESSION. 

At  half-past  two  o'clock  the  remains  were  removed  from  the  depdt- 
building  and  placed  on  a  gun-carriage  prepared  for  the  purpose  and 
drawn  by  four  horses.  On  the  coffin  was  the  sword  of  the  deceased 
crossed  over  the  scabbard,  (the  sword  was  presented  by  the  city  of  Phila 
delphia,)  a  lambskin  apron,  and  sprig  of  evergreen.  The  procession  was 
then  formed  in  the  following  order,  under  the  direction  of  Chief-Marshal 
Anderson : — 

City  Guards. 
Independent  Blues'  Band. 

Lafayette  Guards. 

Company  A  of  Artillery  from  Fort  Henry. 
Grand  Lodge  of  Maryland  and  Subordinate  Lodges  of  Free  and  Accepted 

Masons. 

Guard  of  Honor. 
Independent  Grays,  Capt.  Brush,  wearing  crape  on  the  hat  and  left  arm. 


PALL-BEARERS. 

Surgeon  W.  Mason,  U.S.N. 
Surgeon  H.  S.  Harris,  U.S.N. 
George  P.  Kane, 
Hon.  J.  P.  Kennedy, 
Dr.  J.  R.  W.  Dunbar, 
Prof.  Campbell  Morfit. 


PALL-BEARERS. 

Maj.  Donaldson,  U.S.A. 
Surgeon  Talbot,  U.S.A. 
D.  A.  Piper, 
Win.  Prescott  Smith, 
Hon.  Thomas  Swann, 
Chauncey  Brooks. 


Detachment  of  United  States  Seamen  from  steamship  Alleghany. 

Officers  of  the  Army,  Navy,  and  Marine  Corps. 

Officers  of  the  1st  Light  Division  Maryland  Volunteers. 

The  Mayor  and  City  Councils  of  Baltimore. 

The  Reverend  Clergy. 

The  Medical  Profession,  Dr.  Houck,  Marshal. 
Judges  and  Officers  of  the  various  Courts  and  Members  of  the  Bar. 

Commissioners  of  Public  Schools. 
Officers  and  Members  of  the  Maryland  Institute. 

Linhardt's  Band. 

Male  School  of  Design. 

Junior  Members  of  the  Maryland  Institute. 

Fire-Companies. 
Marine  Band  from  Washington,  thirty-five  performers. 

Mechanical  Fire  Company,  A.  Brashears,  Marshal. 
Pioneer  Hook  and  Ladder  Company,  F.  H.  B.  Boyd,  Marshal. 


344  OBSEQUIES    OF 


Western  Hose-Company. 

Literary  Society  of  Loyola  College. 

Faculty  and  Students  of  Newton  University. 

German  Turnverein  Association. 

Citizens. 

The  family  of  the  deceased  were  not  in  the  procession,  although  his 
brother  and  uncle  were  in  the  city,  deeming  that  it  would  not  have  been 
proper,  under  the  circumstances;  for  them  to  have  done  so. 

The  Masonic  fraternity  turned  out  in  great  numbers,  and  made  an 
admirable  display,  neat  and  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  being  dressed 
in  black  suits '  with  white  gloves  and  aprons,  only  the  officers  of  the 
lodges  wearing  regalia  and  insignia  of  office. 

The  boys  attached  to  the  School  of  Design  attracted  great  attention. 
They  could  not  have  numbered  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifty,  each 
with  a  white  ribbon  in  the  left  lappel  of  their  coats.  The  officers  and 
members  of  the  Institute  were  also  out  in  force,  and  presented  a  good 
representation  of  the  solid,  substantial,  and  useful  men  of  the  city. 

The  military  display  was  small ;  but  the  three  companies  of  Volun 
teers,  with  the  Flying  Artillery  from  Fort  McHenry,  made  an  admirable 
appearance. 

The  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  with  a  detachment  of  seamen 
from  the  steamship  Alleghany,  also  formed  a  pleasing  feature  of  the  cor 
tege.  The  seamen,  dressed  in  naval  attire,  were  especially  attractive. 

The  Mechanical  Fire-Company,  with  the  famous  band  from  the  Wash 
ington  Navy-Yard,  were,  as  usual,  a  prominent  and  interesting  feature. 
Their  foster-children,  the  Pioneer  Hook  and  Ladder  Company,  with 
Lindhart's  Band,  also  made  an  admirable  appearance,  and  proved  them 
selves  not  only  firemen,  but  gentlemen  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word. 
The  Washington  Hose-Company  were  also  in  line,  and  made  a  very  fine 
appearance. 

The  procession,  thus  formed,  moved  up  Eutaw  Street  to  Baltimore 
Street,  and  thence  to  the  Maryland  Institute.  On  reaching  the  Insti 
tute,  the  artillery  filed  to  the  left,  and  the  men  stood  with  arms  pre 
sented  until  the  corpse  was  removed  to  the  main  saloon  and  placed  in 
the  catafalque. 

The  military  was  drawn  up  on  the  east  side  of  the  hall,  from  the  south 
end  to  the  centre,  while  the  Masonic  order,  the  firemen,  the  members 
of  the  Maryland  Institute,  and  other  civic  societies  took  positions  south 
of  the  catafalque  and  entirely  around  that  portion  of  the  hall.  The  Inde 
pendent  Grays,  the  Committee  of  the  Maryland  Institute,  the  officers  of 


DE.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  34.5 


the  army  and  the  field  and  staff  officers  of  the  first,  fiftieth  and  fifty-third 
regiments  of  Maryland  militia  formed  an  oblong  square.  The  coffin 
was  then  covered  with  the  national  standard  by  the  seamen  from  the 
receiving-ship  Alleghany. 

At  a  signal  from  the  Most  Worshipful  Grand  Master,  Rev.  James 
McKenney,  the  Free  Masons  gave  the  grand  honors ;  after  which  dirges 
were  played  by  the  band  from  the  Washington  Navy- Yard   and  t!m.N 
Independent  Blues'  Band.     The  procession  then  retired  by  companies, 
leaving  a  detachment  of  the  Independent  Grays  in  charge. 

While  the  procession  was  moving,  minute-guns  were  fired  on  Federal 
Hill  by  the  Eagle  Artillery,  and  the  bells  of  the  fire-companies  were 
tolled. 

APPEARANCE   OF  THE   CITY. 

There  was  an  immense  concourse  on  the  streets  to  see  the  cortege, 
and  all  the  houses  on  the  line  were  filled.  Balconies  and  windows,  and 
every  available  spot,  was  occupied. 

The  flags  on  all  the  public  buildings  and  of  the  shipping  in  the 
harbor  were  hoisted  at  half-mast,  and  several  buildings  were  appro 
priately  and  tastefully  hung  with  mourning.  The  houses  of  the  Mechanical 
Fire-Company,  the  First  Baltimore  Hose-Company,  the  literary  depot  of 
Mr.  Henry  Taylor,  the  buildings  of  Messrs.  Stine  Brothers,  and  the 
large  building  of  Messrs.  Weisenfeld,  were  handsomely  decorated  j  and 
there  were  others  wearing  the  badge  of  mourning. 

The  request  that  business  should  be  suspended  on  the  streets  through 
which  the  procession  passed,  was  strictly  observed  and  the  thoroughfare 
was  cleared  of  all  obstructions. 

There  has  seldom  been  so  large  a  turn-out  in  the  city,  especially  of 
ladies,  who  numbered  thousands  in  the  houses  and  on  the  sidewalks. 
The  event  will  be  long  remembered;  and  Baltimore  has  paid  a  just 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  who  was  worthy  of  her  regard. 

The  remains  lay  in  state  at  the  Maryland  Institute  Hall  last  night,  in 
charge  of  the  Independent  Grays,  Captain  Brush,  as  a  guard  of  honor, 
and  were  visited  by  an  immense  concourse  of  persons  during  the  after 
noon  and  evening.  We  learn  that  the  sword  placed  on  the  cenotaph  at 
the  Institute  was  sent  from  New  York  for  the  purpose  by  Henry  Grin- 
nell,  Esq.,  it  being  the  same  that  was  presented  to  Dr.  Kane  by  the 
State  of  New  York.  It  is  an  exceedingly  rich  and  valuable  weapon. 

The  entire  hall  wore  an  impressive  aspect.  At  the  front  door  was  a 
draped  arch  overhung  by  the  national  standard.  Reaching  the  landing 


346  OBSEQUIES     OF 


the  columns  at  the  right  and  left  were  hung  in  mourning.  The  mair 
saloon,  where  the  remains  lay  in  state,  had  at  each  end  the  American 
flag,  while  the  gallery  was  draped  throughout  its  entire  length  and  fes 
tooned  at  each  bracket  with  a  white  rosette. 

The  platform  in  the  rear  was  also  draped  and  festooned,  and  the  desk 
wrapped  in  mourning.  In  the  centre  of  the  hall  was  a  catafalque 
covered  with  black  and  trimmed  with  silver  gimp,  upon  which  the  coffin 
was  deposited.  At  each  corner  of  the  structure  was  an  American  flag, 
furled  upon  its  staff  and  capped  with  crape.  On  each  side,  and  sus 
pended  from  the  gallery,  was  a  large  national  standard;  and  on  the  left, 
drooping  over  the  catafalque,  was  a  blue  flag  covered  with  white  stars, 
and  on  the  right,  in  the  same  position,  a  small  American  standard. 

The  upholstery  at  the  hall  was  done  by  Holland  and  Conradt,  and  E. 
A.  Gibbs  supplied  the  scarfs  and  badges.  The  tasteful  and  appropriate 
arrangements  in  the  undertaking-department  were  made  by  Mr.  A. 
Jenkins,  one  of  the  general  committee,  and  of  the  firm  of  A.  &  H. 
Jenkins. 

As  Dr.  Kane  was  an  active  and  most  esteemed  member  of  the  Mary 
land  Institute,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give  at  length  the  proceedings  of 
that  association,  preparatory  to  a  demonstration  which  it  made  in  his 
honor. 


MEETING  OF  THE  MAEYLAND  INSTITUTE. 

Agreeably  to  announcement  in  yesterday's  papers,  the  members  of 
the  Maryland  Institute  assembled  last  evening  in  the  library-room  of 
the  building,  for  the  purpose  of  testifying  their  regard  for  the  memory 
of  the  late  Dr.  Kane,  and  to  make  necessary  arrangements  for  receiving 
the  remains.  At  eight  o'clock  the  chair  was  taken  by  the  Hon.  THOMAS 
SWANN,  Mayor  of  the  city,  and  one  of  the  Vice-Presidents,  (the  Presi 
dent,  Hon.  Joshua  Vanzant,  being  absent  from  the  city,)  who,  in  a  few 
words,  stated  the  object  of  the  meeting.  He  then  made  the  following 
address : — 

G-ENTLEMEN  or  THE  MARYLAND  INSTITUTE  : — It  has  become  my 
painful  duty  to  announce  to  you  the  death  of  our  distinguished  country 
man,  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane.  This  sad  event  took  place  at  Havana,  on 
the  16th  instant,  whither  he  had  repaired  for  the  benefit  of  his  health, — 
broken  down  by  the  exposure  and  toils  of  his  late  expedition  to  the 
Arctic  seas.  As  a  member  of  this  Institute,  his  presence  had  become 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT    KANE.  347 


familiar  to  you  all,  and  I  need  hardly  recur  to  associations  which  were 
alike  honorable  to  himself  as  they  were  grateful  to  the  members  of  this 
body.  He  was  one  of  its  early  contributors  and  most  earnest  advocates. 
It  was  during  a  recent  visit  abroad,  as  I  have  been  informed,  that  he 
urged  a  friend,  only  less  distinguished  than  himself,  if  he  ever  visited 
the  United  States,  not  to  overlook  the  Maryland  Institute  as  a  prominent 
object  of  interest.  His  voice  has  been  heard  in  these  halls.  It  was  the 
theatre  of  many  a  noble  effort  of  his  genius  and  his  learning ;  and  we 
may  well  be  permitted  to  drop  a  tear  over  the  loss  we  have  sustained,  in 
common  with  the  civilized  world. 

In  the  midst  of  a  career  such  as  no  man  had  traversed  before  him — 
a  career  marked  by  daring  and  adventure,  enriched  by  useful  discovery, 
and  rendered  memorable  by  the  most  generous  impulses  of  the  human 
heart — he  has  been  withdrawn  from  the  scenes  of  his  earthly  triumphs : 
he  had  reached  the  last  round  of  the  ladder,  and  his  early  exit  has  only 
added  increased  lustre  to  the  brilliant  record  of  that  modest  and  un 
obtrusive  career  which  has  astonished  both  hemispheres. 

Dr.  Kane  was  one  of  those  who  seemed  to  estimate  life  only  as  a 
means  of  accomplishing  some  great  and  useful  purpose.  When  the 
stoutest  hearts  quailed,  he  was  unmoved.  In  the  midst  of  frozen  seas, 
where  barriers  of  eternal  ice  threatened  to  shut  out  forever  all  hope  of 
reunion  with  the  civilized  world  behind  him,  he  continued  to  press  for 
ward  with  the  gallant  followers  whom  his  own  courage  had  inspired,  until 
he  reached  a  point  upon  the  earth's  surface  which  no  human  foot  had 
pressed,  and  which  nature  herself  seemed  to  have  stamped  as  forbidden 
ground.  The  bones  of  the  intrepid  Franklin,  falling  in  the  same  peril 
ous  adventure,  lay  mouldering  upon  the  outskirts  of  this  great  field, 
while  the  more  successful  march  of  the  unsatisfied  American  bore  him 
to  the  utmost  verge  of  human  discovery,  beyond  which  no  subsequent 
traveller  is  likely  to  penetrate. 

When  we  look  at  the  extreme  youth  of  this  meritorious  officer  at  the 
time  when  he  entered  upon  these  daring  explorations, — when  we  consider 
his  patient  endurance,  his  untiring  energy,  his  profound  science, — we 
cannot  contemplate  without  emotion  his  brief  career,  and  the  many 
striking  incidents  of  his  past  history. 

A  mere  boy,  he  took  upon  himself  the  responsibilities  and  duties  of 
bearded  men ;  and,  at  an  age  comparatively  immature,  we  find  him  sink 
ing  into  the  grave,  crowned  with  the  glittering  testimonials  of  princes 
and  potentates,  of  statesmen  and  men  of  letters,  vying  with  each  other 
to  honor  themselves  in  doing  homage  to  this  illustrious  American. 


348  OBSEQUIES  or 


Such  was  Dr.  Kane.  We  have  met  here  to-night  to  pay  the  last 
tribute  to  his  memory.  He  was  the  friend  of  this  institution;  he  had 
endeared  himself  to  us  all.  May  the  example  he  has  left  stimulate  us 
to  increased  effort  in  the  useful  field  of  our  labors !  May  we  look  with 
renewed  pride  to  the  results  of  his  successful  life,  and  always  remember 
such  triumphs  are  to  be  met  with  only  in  the  walks  of  untiring  industry 
and  spotless  virtue ! 

Mr.  Swann  then  offered  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions,  which 
had  been  prepared  by  a  committee  of  the  membership : — 

Whereas,  The  Maryland  Institute  has  been  apprized  of  the  death,  at 
Havana,  on  the  16th  instant,  of  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  an  honorary 
member  of  this  Institute ;  and 

Whereas,  his  name  has  become  distinguished,  not  only  in  his  own 
country,  but  throughout  the  civilized  world,  for  his  contributions  to 
science  and  useful  discovery,  placing  him  in  advance  of  the  most 
chivalric,  skilful,  and  enterprising  of  the  navigators  who  have  gone 
before  him,  in  all  that  was  calculated  to  reflect  honor  upon  his  country 
or  shed  a  lustre  upon  his  own  fame ;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  proper  and  becoming  that  the  whole  country  should 
recognise  the  severity  of  the  blow  which  has  deprived  us  of  one  of  our 
most  illustrious  citizens,  and  especially  by  the  Maryland  Institute,  whose 
labors  he  has  shared  and  whose  character  he  has  contributed  so  largely 
to  adorn  by  the  close  and  intimate  relationship  in  which  he  stood 
toward  us : 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  Maryland  Institute  receive  with 
unmingled  sorrow  the  sad  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Elisha  Kent 
Kane,  and  that  they  tender  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  their  most 
sincere  condolence  in  this  heavy  bereavement. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  twenty-five  of  the  members  of  this 
Institute  be  appointed  in  behalf  of  this  body  to  take  charge  of  the 
remains  of  our  deceased  brother  on  their  arrival  in  Baltimore,  or  at  such 
point  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  as  they  may  deem  most  con 
venient  and  proper,  and  that  they  be  instructed  to  make  such  further 
arrangements  as  may  be  necessary  to  represent  the  feelings  of  the  Insti 
tute  on  an  occasion  of  so  much  sorrow  not  only  to  its  own  members  but 
the  whole  community. 

Resolved,  That  the  presiding  officer  of  this  Institute  be  instructed  to 
enclose  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  together  with  the  proceedings  of  this 
meeting,  to  the  family  of  the  deceased. 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  349 


The  paper  having  been  read,  William  H.  Young,  Esq.,  arose  and 
seconded  the  resolutions,  and  paid  the  following  tribute  to  the  lamented 
Arctic  Explorer : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  : — The  announcement  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Kane, 
though  not  unexpected,  conies,  nevertheless,  right  home  to  all  our 
hearts.  I  cannot  at  this  moment  call  to  memory  the  name  of  any  one 
in  all  this  broad  land  whose  death  would  strike  a  chord  so  sympathetic 
or  so  universal  as  that  of  this  young  man.  I  know  no  name  that  has 
become  so  fondly  familiar  in  the  hearts  and  homes  of  the  people  as  his. 
Admiration  at  the  gallant  story  of  his  life,  honor  and  applause  for  the 
noble  discharge  of  duty,  do  not  express  the  deeper  feelings  with  which  he 
was  regarded.  The  affectionate  esteem  which  usually  attends  only  warm 
personal  attachment  can  alone  adequately  represent  the  sentiment  enter 
tained  for  him  by  those  who,  though  they  knew  not  his  person,  respon- 
sively  yielded  their  affections  to  the  holy  instincts  of  his  inner  life  and 
nature.  His  high  ambition,  his  noble  zeal,  his  indomitable  energy, 
were  so  blended  with  the  honest  frankness  of  his  disposition,  the  ten 
derness  of  his  love,  the  generous  sympathy  of  his  heart,  and  all  so 
resplendent,  and  so  enlisted  in  the  success  of  the  enterprises  to  which 
he  had  lent  the  fulness  of  his  mind,  as  to  distinguish  a  character  to 
which  his  friends  could  desire  nothing  added.  His  name  will  ever 
be  associated  with  that  of  Lady  Franklin,  and  with  her  undying  devo 
tion  and  love.  Unto  the  untiring  hope  and  prayerful  perseverance  of 
that  noble  Englishwoman  he  seemed  almost  to  have  wedded  himself. 
Cordial  and  tender  were  the  sympathies  that  had  grown  up  between 
them 5  and  her  widowed  heart  is  yet  to  grieve  over  his  untimely  death 
as  though  another  of  her  own  best-loved  ones  has  been  torn  from  her 
arms. 

He  devoted  the  early  years  of  his  manhood  to  danger,  to  toil,  and  to 
suffering  for  a  purpose  almost  hopeless ;  yet  no  man  called  him  rash. 
He  sacrificed  fortune,  health,  and  life  itself,  that  a  very  shadow  might 
assume  reality;  and  men  looked  on  amazed  yet  admiring,  silent  yet 
exulting.  Never  did  expedition  leave  the  shores  of  its  home  blessed 
with  so  many  prayers  as  those  which  followed  the  Advance  on  her  last 
voyage.  Never  did  the  public  mind  more  anxiously  wait  for  a  result 
or  more  ardently  hope  for  its  safety.  And  when  those  sent  to  their 
succor  brought  the  brave  crew  back  to  their  own  land  again,  the  world 
breathed  freer  for  a  while,  and  the  universal  heart  uttered  a  prayer  of 
thanksgiving. 

And  now  but  a  brief  year  has  passed,  and  we  have  met  here  to  pay  a 


350  OBSEQUIES   OF 


last  tribute  to  his  memory,  feebly  to  express  our  sense  of  the  loss  the 
world  has  sustained  in  his  death,  and  to  mingle  our  heartfelt  sorrow  with 
that  which  the  brave  and  generous  everywhere  must  feel  at  the  event. 

Dr.  Kane  has  died  early  in  manhood.  His  career,  though  short,  was 
eventful  and  memorable.  Forbearance,  devotion,-  sacrifice,  submission 
to  toil  and  the  endurance  of  privation,  were  the  features  of  his  living; 
but  heroic  courage  and  dauntless  energy  gave  crowning'  glories  to  his 
young  life,  and  now  bring  hallowed  memories  to  consecrate  his  early 
grave.  His  was  an  exalted  and  earnest  nature,  with  an  inborn  right 
to  immortality.  How  greatly  hath  he  achieved  it !  Science  had  no 
worthier  worshipper,  humanity  no  more  devoted  spirit.  Loyal  to  duty, 
he  had  genius  to  conceive  and  power  to  perform.  Pure  of  heart, 
truthful  and  generous,  the  hearts  of  those  around  him  gathered  close  to 
his.  The  humblest  of  the  gallant  crew  who  shared  his  fortunes  through 
the  long,  frozen  nights  of  Arctic  winters  felt  cheerier  in  his  presence 
and  happier  at  the  sound  of  his  voice.  He  was  unostentatious,  and  in 
his  manner  modest  even  as  became  the  high  behests  of  his  great  nature. 
The  friends  who  knew  him  best,  and  the  dear  ones  at  home,  forget  the 
claims  of  his  mere  achievements  in  the  love  more  precious  which  these 
golden  qualities  inspired.  In  more  than  one  land  his  death  shall  be 
celebrated  by  throbbing  breasts  and  tearful  eyes;  and  his  memory  shall 
be  embalmed  in  the  hearts  of  the  good  of  both  sexes,  and  of  every  age 
and  of  every  clime. 

The  history  of  his  brief  life  presents  a  bright  example  to  his  young 
countrymen, — a  beautiful  memory  for  the  grateful  homage  of  his  brothers 
in  the  service. 

We  could  have  wished  that  his  enterprises  had  been  crowned  with 
fuller  success, — not,  indeed  for  his  fame's  sake,  (for  the  glory  of  his  name 
is  secure,)  but  to  have  made  more  complete  his  own  happiness.  But  he 
heeds  not  these  things  now.  He  hath  laid  himself  down  with  the  brave 
to  sleep.  Death  hath  kissed  him  with  lips  colder  than  the  north 
wind's  breath.  Life,  with  its  behests  and  hopes,  is  over.  He  lives 
with  the  immortal  dead. 

The  Hon.  John  P.  Kennedy,  late  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  member 
of  the  Maryland  Institute,  spoke  as  follows  : — 

I  am  not  willing,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  allow  the  present  opportunity  to 
pass  without  a  few  words  from  me  to  express  my  hearty  concurrence  in 
the  object  proposed  by  the  resolutions  which  have  been  already  so 


DR.   ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  351 


eloquently  commended  by  yourself  and  other  gentlemen  who  have 
spoken,  and  so  cordially  received  by  the  committee.  It  is  peculiarly 
appropriate  that  the  leading  part  of  the  manifestation  of  a  purpose  to 
do  honor  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane  should  be  assumed  by  the  Mary 
land  Institute.  He  was  a  distinguished  member  of  this  body,  whose 
fellowship  he  cherished  to  the  latest  moment  of  his  life  with  a  most 
grateful  remembrance  of  the  earnest,  and,  I  might  say,  affectionate, 
interest  which  it  took  in  the  preparation,  the  progress,  and  the  consumma 
tion  of  both  of  his  expeditions  to  the  Arctic  circle.  It  was  foremost  in 
the  study  of  his  grand  design, — the  first  to  cheer  him  onward  to  its 
accomplishment,  the  first  to  applaud  his  achievements.  In  the  hall  of 
the  Institute  he  ever  found  an  overflowing  audience  to  listen  to  his 
exposition  of  his  plans ;  and  there,  too,  he  found  the  largest  sympathy 
in  the  utterance  of  his  hopes.  No  associated  body  in  the  United  States, 
no  section  of  the  general  community  outside  of  his  immediate  and  most 
intimate  friends,  met  him  with  the  same  h'e^rty  appreciation  of  his 
purpose,  or  with  such  cheerful  tones  of  encouragement,  as  the  Maryland 
Institute,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  intelligent  citizens  of  Baltimore  who 
are  accustomed  to  frequent  its  rooms.  The  brave  explorer  felt,  through 
out  all  the  hazards  and  toils  of  his  perilous  ventures,  that  he  had  a  host 
of  friends  here  who  thought  hopefully  of  him  in  his  darkest  day,  who 
watched  his  fortunes  with  an  eager  solicitude  and  listened  with  anxious 
concern  for  the  first  tidings  of  his  return.  It  was  a  source  of  strength 
to  his  resolution  amidst  the  dangers  of  his  path,  and  an  ever-present 
encouragement  to  his  labors,  that  he  had  such  friends  at  home  ready  to 
welcome  the  moment  which  should  give  him  back  to  his  country,  and 
still  more  ready  to  approve  and  applaud  the  generous  aims  of  his  enter 
prise.  Sir,  these  sentiments  on  both  sides  created  an  intimate  relation 
between  Dr.  Kane  and  the  Maryland  Institute,  and  now  give  a  peculiar 
appropriateness  to  the  purposes  of  the  present  meeting. 

Nothing  that  I  can  say  on  this  occasion  can  enhance  the  high  esteem 
which  this  community  entertains  for  the  character  and  exploits  of  the 
young  hero  to  whom  the  spontaneous  feeling  of  the  country  at  this 
moment  is  according  such  extraordinary  honors.  I  do  not  speak  with 
the  expectation  of  adding  any  thing  to  that  esteem  :  my  purpose  in  utter 
ing  a  word  here  is  rather  to  indulge  a  personal  wish  to  perform  a  duty 
to  a  friend  with  whom  I  was  connected  under  circumstances  that  fur 
nished  me  many  occasions  to  admire  his  manly  virtues  and  rare  accom 
plishments.  Sir,  I  think  I  may  speak  of  Dr.  Kane  with  more  intimate 
knowledge  than  perhaps  any  member  of  this  committee.  My  intercourse 


352  OBSEQUIES    OF 


with  him,  both  private  and  official,  was  of  a  kind  that  enables  me  to 
recall  many  interesting  particulars  touching  his  last  expedition. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  brought  into  a  confidential  communion 
with  him  at  a  time  when  my  friendship  could  be  made  useful  in  fur 
nishing  essential — I  might  almost  say  indispensable — aid  to  the  success 
of  that  most  perilous  of  his  Arctic  explorations,  that  voyage  of  which 
the  result  has  been  to  furnish  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  records  yet 
given  to  the  world  of  Polar  discovery.  The  liberality  of  two  private 
gentlemen  whose  names  are  already  highly  exalted  on  the  rolls  of  munifi 
cent  and  public-spirited  men — Henry  Grinnell  and  George  Peabody — 
had  contributed  the  money  to  the  outfit  of  that  expedition ;  but,  not 
withstanding  their  liberality,  it  still  stood  in  need  of  many  most  necessary 
supplies.  Dr.  Kane  had  been  invited  to  take  the  command.  Indeed,  I 
believe  the  project  of  this  second  expedition  to  the  Northern  seas  had 
originated  with  himself,  stimulated  to  it  by  a  correspondence  with  that 
distinguished  lady  whose  devotion  to  a  hopeless  pursuit  of  the  traces  of 
her  lost  husband,  Sir  John  Franklin,  has  for  years  past  been  the  theme 
of  a  world-wide  admiration  and  sympathy.  Her  acquaintance  with  Dr. 
Kane,  and  her  confidence  in  his  extraordinary  ability  for  such  an  under 
taking,  had  been  formed  in  the  progress  of  his  participation  in  De 
Haven's  voyage;  and  she  was  prompt  to  advise  and  encourage  our 
friend's  overture  by  the  strongest  appeals  to  that  generous  aspiration 
of  his  which  was  not  less  ennobled  by  the  benevolence  of  its  object 
than  the  gallantry  and  skill  which  he  was  able  to  bring  to  its  achieve 
ment. 

He  communicated  his  views  and  plans  to  me,  sir;  but  I  did  not  hesi 
tate  to  say  to  him  that  I  would  assist  him  with  every  means  I  might 
find  myself  authorized,  by  my  position  at  the  head  of  the  Navy  Depart 
ment,  to  put  at  his  disposal.  I  accordingly  suggested  to  him  that  I 
would  bring  the  expedition  within  the  control  of  the  Government  by 
adopting  it  as  a  public  enterprise,  and  by  giving  him  a  special  order  to 
conduct  it  under  the  direction  of  the  Department.  In  pursuance  of  this 
purpose,  I  forthwith  issued  to  Dr.  Kane  the  order  "  to  conduct  an 
expedition  to  the  Arctic  seas  in  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin,"  enjoin 
ing  upon  him  to  make  his  reports  to  the  head  of  the  Navy  Department. 
Having  thus  brought  him  into  this  relation,  he  became  entitled  to  what 
is  understood  in  the  navy  as  "  duty-pay,"  by  which  he  received  a  small 
addition — I  wish  it  had  been  more — to  his  means  for  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  voyage.  I  also  detailed  for  him,  in  the  course  of  his 
preparation,  some  chosen  men  from  the  service,  consisting  in  all  of  ten  out 


DR.   ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  353 


of  the  entire  party  of  seventeen.  These  were  entitled  to  their  pay  and 
rations  from  the  Government.  Some  other  facilities — all  that  I  could 
grant  from  the  ordinary  resources  of  the  navy  without  a  specific  appro 
priation  by  Congress — were  added,  in  the  supply  of  nautical  instru 
ments,  maps,  and  charts,  and,  I  believe,  also  some  preserved  meats, 
vegetables,  and  other  provisions.  The  Department,  however,  could  not 
do  so  much  as  was  needful ;  and  I  felt,  at  the  departure  of  the  expedi 
tion,  that  no  small  risk  would  attend  the  comparatively  scanty  amount 
of  supplies  for  such  a  voyage.  Never,  I  believe,  in  the  history  of 
exploration,  has  a  national  adventure  so  full  of  peril,  and  so  certain  of 
hardships,  been  committed  to  the  chances  of  wind  and  wave  and  inhos 
pitable  shores,  so  inadequately  furnished  as  this, — never  one  that  had 
more  in  it  to  quell  the  courage  and  try  the  hardihood  of  its  commander, 
from  causes  attributable  to  the  insufficiency  of  its  outfit.  Kane  seemed 
to  have  a  painful  consciousness  of  this  fact.  Almost  his  last  words  to 
me  were,  "  My  friend,  if  I  am  not  home  before  the  second  winter,  keep 
your  thoughts  upon  us,  and  get  the  Government  by  all  means  to  send  in 
relief.  We  shall  stand  sadly  in  need  of  help."  I  promised  him  I 
would  do  my  part  in  such  an  event ;  and,  sir,  when  the  time  came  I 
did  not  forget  it.  I  rejoice  to  add  that  the  Government  in  that  emer 
gency  needed  no  prompting,  and  that  the  relief,  as  you  well  know,  in 
due  time  went  upon  its  successful  errand  of  grateful  duty,  under  the 
lead  of  a  gallant  captain  who  sped,  with  the  faith  of  a  true  comrade  and 
the  characteristic  devotion  of  his  profession,  to  the  rescue  of  that  shat 
tered  little  band  whose  fate  many  then  thought  scarcely  less  precarious 
than  that  of  the  unhappy  adventurers  they  had  themselves  gone  forth  to 
seek  and  succor. 

Among  many  letters  in  my  possession  I  have  two  from  Dr.  Kane, 
which  I  preserve  with  scrupulous  regard.  One,  I  believe,  is  the  last  he 
wrote  on  bidding  adieu  to  an  American  shore.  It  was  written  at  St. 
John's  in  Newfoundland,  on  the  outward  voyage.  It  was  to  inform  me 
that  all  was  well  at  that  point,  and  to  relieve  me  of  a  solicitude  for  him 
self  which  he  knew  disturbed  me  at  the  time  of  his  departure.  He  had 
spent  the  previous  winter  in  Washington  in  almost  daily  intercourse 
with  myself;  and  I  had  seen  with  concern  the  terrible  tax  he  had 
imposed  upon  his  health  in  the  unremitting  study  of  preparation  for  his 
voyage.  His  incessant  labor  day  and  night  had  made  a  visible  inroad 
upon  his  strength;  and  I  was  obliged  often  to  caution  him  against  the 
consequences,  and  to  entreat  him  to  desist  from  work.  Night  after 
night  was  spent  till  dawn  of  day  at  his  desk.  He  grew  thin  and  pale, 

23 


354  OBSEQUIES   OF 


and  manifestly  enfeebled.  At  length,  when  all  was  ready  in  April  for 
his  voyage,  and  his  appointed  time  for  sailing  had  come,  he  was  struck 
down  with  a  rheumatic  fever,  which  confined  him  for  some  weeks  to  his 
bed,  and  when  he  was  next  reported  only  convalescent  I  was  surprised 
to  learn  that  he  had  gone  aboard  at  New  York  and  stood  out  to  sea. 
Commencing  such  a  voyage  under  such  circumstances,  his  friends 
naturally  felt  a  great  concern  for  his  success.  His  letter  from  St.  John's 
was  written  to  assure  me  that  he  had  conquered  his  malady,  and  he  was 
ready  for  the  sterner  contests  that  awaited  him. 

This  first  letter  was  dated  in  June,  1853.  The  second — in  October, 
1855,  two  years  and  four  months  later — was  dated  off  Sandy  Hook, 
announcing  his  return.  It  speaks  joyfully  of  the  pleasant  days  before 
him,  and  describes  his  health  as  singularly  robust.  There  is  in  it,  too, 
a  playful  allusion  to  a  claim  made  by  the  British  Explorations  contem 
poraneous  with  the  former  voyage  of  De  Haven,  which  had  been  a 
subject  of  remark  in  the  maps  of  the  Admiralty,  in  which  "  Grinnell 
Land"  of  our  chart  is  described  as  "  Albert  Land."  He  says  now,  in 
this  letter,  "  I  found  another  Grinnell  Land/'  alluding  to  the  most 
remote  region  of  his  recent  discovery,  "which  any  man  is  welcome  to 
who  will  go  after  it." 

It  was  not  long  after  this  when  he  called  upon  me.  I  never  saw  him 
looking  so  well.  He  said  himself,  "  My  health  is  almost  absurd.  I 
have  grown  like  a  walrus."  I  mention  these  trivial  facts  to  show  that 
it  was  not  his  voyage  to  which  we  may,  with  any  certainty,  attribute 
his  subsequent  ill  health.  The  ardor  of  his  spirits  and  energy  of  his 
mind  conquered  all  the  difficulties  of  his  expedition  ;  but,  I  fear,  we 
may  assign  to  that  very  ardor  the  unhappy  sequence  of  decaying  strength 
which  has  now  laid  him  low  and  caused  this  general  sorrowing  in  our 
country.  He  set  himself  immediately  upon  the  laborious  task  of  pre 
paring  those  volumes  of  surpassing  interest  which  give  us  the  history 
of  his  adventures,  and  which  are  now  in  every  one's  hand.  The  change 
from  an  active  life  to  the  sedentary  pursuits  of  his  study,  his  task 
pursued  with  that  unremitting  industry  which  was  the  habit  of  his 
nature,  and  which  I  had  so  often  rebuked  and  attempted  to  check  in 
the  days  of  his  preparation  in  Washington, — to  this  I  look  as  the  more 
probable  cause  of  that  decline  which  advanced  with  such  fearful  speed 
toward  the  grave.  A  spirit  so  eager,  determination  so  intense,  over 
looked  and  seemed  to  forget  the  repose  and  the  nurture  that  were 
essential  to  health;  and  Kane,  the  beloved  and  the  lamented,  has  fallen  a 
victim  to  the  uncontrollable  energy  of  his  own  will.  What  the  rigors 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  355 


of  the  Pole,  and  the  long  Arctic  night,  and  the  ice-bound  prison-house 
of  frozen  seas,  could  not  subdue,  has  been  overthrown  by  the  insidious 
assault  of  the  midnight  lamp  and  the  dead  wood  of  the  desk. 

Stern  as  were  the  trials  of  that  Polar  voyage,  neither  they  nor  the 
subsequent  labors  of  his  study  had  quenched  his  zeal  in  the  career  to 
which  he  had  devoted  his  life.  He  longed  to  repeat  them  in  a  new 
endeavor,  to  which  he  was  instigated  by  the  combined  influence  of  a 
hope  to  ascertain  something  more  definite  in  regard  to  the  fate  of 
Franklin's  party,  (concerning  which  the  recent  reports  of  Dr.  Rea  had 
accounted,  in  his  opinion,  only  for  a  portion  of  the  whole  number,  leav 
ing  room  to  conclude  that  traces  of  the  remainder  might  still  be  found,) 
and  of  the  attractions  of  scientific  investigation  in  the  great  field  of 
geological  phenomena  which  these  wonderful  realms  of  ice  present. 

Soon  after  his  work  was  published,  (September,  1856,)  Lady  Franklin 
intimated  to  him  her  wish  to  equip  another  expedition,  and  obtained,  as 
I  understood,  the  consent  of  the  Admiralty  to  invite  him  to  take  com 
mand  of  it.  This  offer  fired  his  imagination  with  the  ardor  of  new 
hopes  in  the  cause  of  humanity  and  science,  and  the  ambition  of  still 
greater  achievements.  He  came  to  consult  me  on  the  subject.  I  did 
all  I  could  to  dissuade  him  from  further  pursuit  of  an  adventure  which 
I  thought  too  hazardous  and  too  hopeless  of  success.  I  found  that  this 
had  been  the  advice  of  other  friends ;  and  there  was  a  manifest  tone  of 
dejection  and  disappointment  in  his  reluctant  acquiescence  in  these 
counsels.  "  I  dislike  to  give  it  up,"  he  said;  "and,  if  it  were  not  for 
one  consideration  that  touches  me  very  nearly,  I  should  persist  in  going. 
My  mother  is  distressed  at  it,"  he  added,  "  and  wishes  me  to  abandon 
the  thought.  I  can  resist  other  persuasions,  but  that  must  settle  the 
question  with  me/'  And  afterward,  recurring  again  to  it,  he  said,  "It 
is  so  flattering  an  offer  to  me,  coming  from  a  foreign  land, — the  com 
mand  of  an  expedition  fitted  out  in  England  and  intrusted  to  me  upon 
the  invitation  of  friends  there,  and  sanctioned  by  the  Admiralty :  it  goes 
hard  with  me  to  decline  it." 

As  I  was  about  visiting  England  myself  at  the  time  of  this  conversa 
tion,  he  asked  me  to  call  on  Lady  Franklin  in  London  and  explain  to 
her  why  he  could  not  accept  this  offer,  and  to  say  how  much  he  prized 
the  honor  it  was  intended  to  confer  upon  him.  This  was  the  last  inter 
view  I  ever  had  with  him.  I  sailed  a  few  days  afterward,  and  when  in 
London  I  made  several  visits  to  Lady  Franklin,  and  faithfully  commu 
nicated  to  her  what  he  had  desired  me  to  say.  At  the  Admiralty  Kane 
was  well  known  and  greatly  esteemed ;  and  it  was  no  small  satisfaction 


356  OBSEQUIES   OF 


to  me  to  find  there  that  his  character  and  services  were  associated,  in  the 
minds  of  the  most  intelligent  men,  with  sentiments  of  the  highest 
esteem  for  our  navy  in  general.  I  am  convinced  that  his  fame  reflected 
a  lustre  upon  our  whole  naval  service,  and  that  he  was  regarded,  in 
gome  degree,  as  the  representative  and  type  of  the  accomplishment, 
gallantry,  and  patriotic  devotion  to  duty  of  the  whole  corps  of  American 
naval  officers,  whose  character,  both  abroad  and  at  home,  is  identified 
with  the  highest  renown  of  our  republic. 

Such  was  the  confidence  and  respect  which  Kane  had  inspired  in  the 
official  ranks  of  the  British  navy,  and  among  the  scientific  men  con 
nected  with  il,Hhat  the  Admiralty  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  and  adopt 
his  charts  for  the  correction  of  their  own,  and — with  a  promptitude 
which  no  less  does  honor  to  their  integrity  and  sense  of  justice  than  it 
evinces  their  friendly  dispositions  toward  our  country — to  acknowledge 
the  claim  of  our  first  expedition  under  De  Haven  to  that  priority  of  dis 
covery  of  the  "  Grinnell  Land"  to  which  I  have  alluded  as  heretofore  a 
subject  of  discussion.  The  Admiralty  have  been  wanting  in  no  just 
and  grateful  recognition  of  the  results  and  value  of  both  of  our  expedi 
tions,  nor  in  the  highest  commendation  of  the  public  spirit  of  those  who 
originated  and  conducted  them.  It  is  only  by  such  interchange  of 
grateful  service  and  liberal  appreciation  that  two  great  nations  allied  to 
each  other  by  kindred  of  blood  and  affinity  of  ambition  in  promoting  the 
great  ends  of  civilization  may  hope  to  confer  upon  themselves  and  man 
kind  that  incalculable  good  which  shall  make  their  power  a  permanent 
blessing  to  the  world.  It  should  be  the  desire  and  policy  of  both  to 
cultivate  this  disposition  in  all  their  intercourse. 

Upon  my  return  to  my  own  country,  I  found  that  Kane  had  just 
sailed  for  England.  His  reception  there  was  all  that  might  have  been 
expected.  In  the  midst  of  the  gratulations  that  were  offered  to  him, 
and  the  happy  greetings  of  his  reception,  we  were  afflicted  with  the 
startling  reports  of  his  failure  in  health,  and  the  still  more  alarming 
tidings  that  he  was  obliged  to  seek  a  more  sunny  clime.  The  next 
news  brought  us  warning  from  Havana  of  his  quick  decay,  and,  soon 
afterward,  the  report  of  his  death.  His  body  is  now  upon  its  way  to 
the  home  of  his  youth,  attended  by  mourning  friends.  In  its  passage 
through  our  city  let  us  receive  it  with  such  honors  as  shall  announce  our 
high  appreciation  of  his  whole  character  and  service,  and  express  the 
profound  sorrow  of  this  community.  The  character  and  services  of  Dr. 
Kane  are  worthy  of  being  preserved  in  the  memory  of  the  nation.  A 
gentler  spirit  and  a  braver  were  never  united  in  one  bosom.  He 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  357 


possessed  the  modest  reserve  of  the  student  in  combination  with  the 
ardent  love  of  adventure  and  daring  which  distinguished  the  most 
romantic  son  of  chivalry.  With  equal  zeal  and  ability  he  pursued  the 
attainment  of  science  and  the  hardiest  toil  of  exploration.  It  was 
pleasant  to  contemplate  so  much  defiance  of  danger,  such  rugged  adven 
ture,  such  capability  for  severe  exposure  to  the  roughest  labor,  in  a 
man  of  such  delicate  nurture  and  so  mild  and  gentle  in  deportment. 
We  saw  in  these  traits  a  union  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  with  the  endurance 
and  hardihood  of  Captain  John  Smith,  of  our  own  colonial  history. 
Such  a  character  is  a  model  for  the  training  of  youth  ar  '.-a  subject  for 
the  applause  of  mature  age.  The  early  death  of  Dr.  Kane  has  been 
recognised  as  a  national  loss ;  and  the  honors  which  nave  been  awarded 
to  his  memory,  throughout  the  long  journey  by  which  his  remains  are 
conducted  to  their  final  resting-place,  are  such  as  we  have  heretofore 
accorded  only  to  the  most  eminent  men  of  our  country.  I  find  a  mourn 
ful  pleasure,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  being  able  this  evening  to  concur  with 
this  committee  in  the  measures  they  have  proposed  by  which  this  city 
may  unite  in  this  general  tribute  of  respect. 

After  a  few  remarks  from  N.  H.  Thayer,  Esq.,  the  resolutions  were 
adopted. 

Upon  motion,  the  Mayor  was  then  directed  to  appoint  the  committee 
of  twenty-five,  which  he  did. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Kennedy,  the  chairman  was  added  to  the  committee. 

The  following  gentlemen  compose  the  committee  : — 

HON.  JOSHUA  VANSANT,  JNO.  DUKEHART, 

HON.  JOHN  P.  KENNEDY,  HUGH  A.  COOPER, 

JAMES  M.  ANDERSON,  THOMAS  TRIMBLE, 

JAMES  MURRAY,  WILLIAM  H.  KEIGHLER, 

JNO.  ROGERS,  WENDELL  BOLLMAN, 

WILLIAM  H.  YOUNG,  T.  M.  CONRADT, 

ADAM  DENMEAD,  SAMUEL  SANDS, 

HON.  REVERDY  JOHNSON,  PROF.  CAMPBELL  MORFIT, 

JOHNS  HOPKINS,  HUGH  BOLTON, 

J.  CRAWFORD  NEILSON,  LAWRENCE  SANGSTON, 

SAMUEL  HINDES,  GEORGE  W.  ANDREWS, 

GEORGE  A.  DAVIS,  ROBERT  LESLIE, 
D.  L.  BARTLETT. 

On  motion  of  John  Dukehart,  Esq.,  the  meeting  then  adjourned. 

On  the  morning  of  Wednesday,  the  llth,  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane 
were,  with  great  solemnity,  removed  from  the  Hall  of  the  Maryland 


358  OBSEQUIES   OF 


Institute,  and  conveyed  with  becoming  accompaniment  to  the  depdt  of 
the  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  Railroad,  under  the  immediate  direction 
of  the  following-named  gentlemen  : — 

HON.  JOSHUA  VANSANT,  JOHN  DUKEHART, 

HUGH  A.  COOPER,  THOMAS  TRIMBLE, 

JOHN  ROGERS. 

With  them  was  the  delegation  from  the  Philadelphia  Joint  Com 
mittee  of  Arrangements.  At  Elkton,  Md.,  a  committee  from  the 
Masonic  Order,  and  the  citizens  of  Wilmington,  Del.,  were  introduced 
to  the  delegation.  This  committee  consisted  of  the  following-named 
persons : — 

HON.  JOHN  M.  WALES,  CHARLES  STEWARD, 

CAPT.  GEORGE  N.  HOLLINS,        DR.  J.  WHITE, 
CHRISTIAN  RAUCH,  J.  S.  VALENTINE, 

WILLIAM  JORDAN,  DR.  JOHN  SIMMS, 

HON.  D.  W.  BATES. 

At  Wilmington,  Del.,  and  at  Chester,  Pa., — the  stopping  places  of  the 
carg) — thousands  of  citizens  were  assembled  to  do  honor  to  the  deceased. 

A  hasty  glance  at  the  public  proceedings  of  citizens  and  corporations 
of  cities  and  States,  on  the  occasion  of  the  arrival  of  the  remains  of  Dr. 
Kane,  has  been  taken.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  record  all:  a 
volume  would  not  contain  them.  It  seemed  sufficient  to  note  the  par 
ticular  points  at  which  it  was  necessary  for  the  boats  or  cars  containing 
the  body  of  Dr.  Kane  to  rest,  and  to  refer,  in  most  cases  generally,  to 
the  proceedings  in  reference  to  the  distinguished  dead. 

But  demonstrations  of  high  respect  were  not  limited  to  processions 
with  the  body.  They  were  provided  for  wherever  it  was  supposed  the 
remains  would  pass, — especially  at  Pittsburg,  in  this  State.  In  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  most  appropriate  and  eloquent  tributes  were  paid 
to  the  gifted  son  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  Legislatures  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  almost  all  the  scientific 
associations  of  the  country,  special  action  was  had  with  regard  to  the 
eminent  services  and  early  death  of  Dr.  Kane.  As  among  the  most 
touching  memorials  of  deep  affection  and  ineffaceable  gratitude  for  the 
dead  may  be  cited  the  resolutions  adopted  at  a  meeting  of  the  com 
panions  of  Dr.  Kane  in  his  Arctic  Expedition,  which  are  subjoined: — 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  COMPANIONS  OF  DR.  KANE. 

The  surviving  members  of  the  late  Arctic  Expedition  met  at  the 
La  Pierre  House,  on  Friday  evening,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  such 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  359 


action  as  might  be  deemed  appropriate  in  view  of  the  regretted  death  of 
their  late  commander,  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  calling  Dr.  I.  I.  Hayes  to  the 
chair,  and  appointing  Mr.  Amos  Bonsall  Secretary.  On  calling  the 
meeting  to  order,  Dr.  Hayes  said,  in  explanation  of  their  object  in 
coming  together, — 

We  little  thought,  comrades,  when  we  so  often  spoke  of  the  meetings 
we  would  have  upon  our  return  home,  that  the  first  would  be  to  mourn 
the  loss  of  our  brave  commander.  Through  dangers  he  has  often  led  us. 
Again  we  are  called  to  follow  him  ;  but  the  circumstances  how  different ! 
There  we  followed  him  through  paths  forced  over  a  trackless  waste  by 
his  own  energy.  Now  death  is  our  pilot.  It  is  hard  to  realize  that  he 
is  indeed  dead.  He  was  one  of  those  with  whom  you  could  scarcely 
associate  the  thought.  But  the  tears  of  a  sorrowing  and  grateful  people 
assure  us  that  it  is  too  true.  The  bright  star  we  have  all  so  often  seen 
just  nickering  on  the  verge  of  the  horizon  has  gone  down.  The  frail 
force  which  held  it  to  this  earth  is  broken.  That  soul  so  strong,  that 
body  so  weak,  too  much  in  antagonism  long  to  remain  together, — alas  ! 
we  shall  never  know  the  one  but  by  its  influence  upon  our  lives,  nor  see 
the  other  but  by  its  impress  upon  our  memories. 

But  I  will  not  anticipate  you.  Let  us  show  in  some  way,  unitedly, 
our  appreciation  of  his  services  while  living,  and  our  sorrow  at  his  death. 

Mr.  George  Stephenson  offered  the  following  resolutions,  which  were 
unanimously  adopted : — 

Resolved,  That  we  have  received  with  pain  the  sad  intelligence  of  the 
death  of  our  late  honored  commander,  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  and  embrace 
this  the  earliest  opportunity  of  unitedly  expressing  our  sorrow.  . 

Resolved ,  That  while  we  join  with  our  countrymen  and  the  citizens 
of  his  native  State  in  paying  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  who  had 
already  achieved  so  much  for  the  world's  good  and  the  nation's  glory, — 
kn6wing  him  as  we  did  well  through  scenes  which  try  men's  moral 
nature, — our  hearts  mourn  the  loss  of  those  high  qualities  which 
endeared  him  to  us  as  captain,  comrade,  and  friend.  We  found  him 
wise  in  counsel,  clear  in  judgment,  bold  in  danger,  fearless  in  execution; 
ever  alive  to  the  calls  of  humanity,  with  a  firm  faith  in  the  protecting 
care  of  an  overruling  Providence,  which  gave  him  moral  power  to  rise 
above  physical  weakness,  filled  him  at  all  times  with  cheerful  hope,  and 
imbued  him  with  almost  superhuman  strength;  and  we  hold  his  name  in 
grateful  remembrance. 


360  OBSEQUIES     OF 


Resolved,  That  we  do  deeply  sympathize  with  his  bereaved  family, 
knowing  full  well  that,  great  as  is  the  loss  to  us  of  one  possessing  so 
many  manly  virtues,  greater  still  must  it  be  to  those  who  held  to  him  a 
nearer  relation. 

Resolved,  That,  as  the  only  means  now  left  us  of  showing  our  respect 
for  the  memory  that  lingers  sadly  yet  brightly  with  us,  we  will,  in  a 
body,  follow  his  remains  to  their  last  resting-place,  in  such  position  as 
may  be  assigned  us  by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  be  directed  to  forward  to  the  family  of 
the  deceased  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  signed  by  all  the  members. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned. 

I.  I.  HAYES,  President. 
AMOS  BONSALL,  Secretary. 


DEPUTATIONS  FROM  OTHER  CITIES. 

A  committee  of  fourteen  members  from  both  branches  of  the  Common 
Council  of  the  city  of  New  York  arrived  in  Philadelphia  to  manifest 
the  sympathy  of  that  city  in  the  great  loss,  and  her  high  appreciation  of 
the  services  and  character  of  Dr.  Kane.  This  delicate  attention  on  the 
part  of  a  sister  city  was  beautifully  consistent  with  the  liberality  of  one 
of  her  distinguished  citizens,  to  whom  Dr.  Kane  was  indebted  for  much 
encouragement  and  liberal  contributions  of  means  to  undertake  and 
accomplish  his  great  Arctic  expedition.  These  gentlemen,  with  the 
committees  from  other  cities,  were  formally  received  by  a  sub-committee, 
and  became  the  guests  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  Such  was  the 
expression  of  respect  to  Dr.  Kane  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  such  the 
proceedings  in  cities  through  which  the  remains  of  our  townsman 
passed,  such  the  voluntary,  the  spontaneous  expression  of  regard  for  the 
services  and  memory  of  the  good  and  great.  And  while  these  honors  in 
other  places  were,  to  the  passing  body,  thus  distinguished,  here  in 
Philadelphia,  where  was  his  home  in  life,  and  where  was  prepared  his 
resting-place  in  death,  the  proper  reception  of  the  honorable  deposit 
and  the  vigilant  guard  of  the  sacred  remains  ought  to  be  followed  by 
such  public  solemnities  as  would  enable  the  authorities  and  people 
to  express  their  sense  of  the  respect  paid  to  the  memory  of  their  towns 
man  elsewhere,  and  the  appreciation  of  the  honor  conferred  on  them 
by  the  heroic  services  of  the  deceased  in  the  cause  of  science  and 
philanthropy. 


DR.  ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  361 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  JOINT  COMMITTEE  RESUMED. 

The  committee,  impressed  with  the  importance  of  complete  arrange 
ments  and  the  preservation  of  order  in  all  the  public  proceedings, 
deemed  it  necessary  to  make  an  early  appointment  of  a  marshal,  who 
should  advise  with  them  in  the  formation  of  a  procession  and  execute 
the  plan  adopted ;  and  they  unanimously  selected  Peter  C.  Ellmaker, 
Esq.,  as  marshal-in-chief,  with  authority  to  appoint  aids  and  assistant 
marshals. 

From  the  many  who  hastened  to  offer  their  services  as  undertakers, 
the  committee  selected  for  the  duties  of  that  place  Mr.  William  H. 
Moore. 

With  reference  to  military  escort  and  guard  of  honor,  the  committee 
adopted  the  following  resolutions  : — 

Resolved ,  That  the  offer  of  the  services  of  the  Artillery  Corps  of  the 
Washington  Grays,  by  Captain  Thomas  P.  Parry,  be  accepted,  to  act  as 
a  guard  of  honor  on  the  occasion,  if  consistent  with  the  arrangements 
of  the  naval  and  military  authorities. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Thomas,  it  was 

Resolved,  That,  if  consistent  with  the  orders  of  the  commanding 
officer,  the  First  City  Troop  of  Cavalry,  Captain  James,  be  invited  to 
act  as  a  body-guard  on  the  occasion  of  the  reception  of  the  remains  of 
the  late  Dr.  Kane,  and  escort  the  same  to  Independence  Hall. 

It  was  further  Resolved,  That  the  commanding  officer  of  the  First 
Division  Pennsylvania  Volunteers  be  requested  to  detail  a  brigade  to 
act  as  a  military  escort  on  the  occasion,  in  addition  to  the  companies 
mentioned  in  the  foregoing  resolutions ;  and  that  all  the  officers  of  the 
Division  not  on  duty  be  invited  to  attend  the  solemnities  in  uniform. 

On  learning  that  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  had  reached  Baltimore, 
the  Joint  Committee  of  Arrangement  despatched  a  delegation  from  their 
number,  to  proceed  to  that  city  and  accompany  them  hither,  the 
remains  to  be  still  in  the  care  of  the  Committee  of  Baltimore. 

The  directors  of  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington  and  Baltimore  Rail 
road  Company  promptly  and  generously  offered  every  facility  for  convey 
ing  the  committee  to  Baltimore  and  bringing  thence  the  body  of  Dr. 
Kane  and  those  who  should  attend  upon  it ;  and,  the  kind  offer  having 
been  thankfully  accepted,  the  directors  placed  two  cars  at  the  disposal 
of  the  committee,  who  had  declined  accepting,  as  less  sure  and  expedi 
tious,  the  alternative  of  a  "  special  train." 


362 


OBSEQUIES    OF 


The  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  were  brought  to  the  dep6t  at  the  corner  of 
Broad  and  Prime  Streets,  at  five  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  Monday, 
the  llth  of  March,  accompanied  by  some  members  of  the  mourning 
family,  and  under  the  care  of  a  committee  consisting  of  the  following- 
named  gentlemen  appointed  by  the  Maryland  Institute  of  Baltimore  : — 

JOHN  DUKEHART,  JOHN  RODGERS, 

HUGH  A.  COOPER,  THOMAS  TRIMBLE, 

HON.  JOSHUA  VANSANT. 

The  Joint  Committee  proceeded  to  the  depdt  to  meet  the  remains, 
and  they  caused  them  to  be  taken  thence  and  conveyed  to  the  Hall  of 
Independence,  in  the  following  order : — 

Officers  of  the  Police. 

First  and  Second  Divisions  of  Police. 

Washington  Grays,  Captain  Parry. 

Band. 
The  First  City  Troop,  Captain  James,  acting  as  Guard  of  Honor. 


GO 


W 

W 


City  Troop. 
Companions  of  Dr.  Kane  in  the  Arctic  Expedition. 

Committee  of  City  Councils. 
Committee  from  Maryland  Institute. 

Committee  from  Cincinnati. 

Committees  of  various  bodies  from  Wilmington  and  other  places. 
The  Committee  appointed  by  the  Town  Meeting. 

The  Committee  from  the  Corn  Exchange. 
A  body  of  the  City  Police,  consisting  of  several  hundred  men,  detailed 

by  the  Mayor. 

The  body  of  Dr.  Kane,  thus  escorted,  was  placed  in  the  Hall  of 
Independence,  the  coffin  resting  on  a  pedestal  and  covered  with  a  pall, 
and  overlaid  with  the  flag  of  the  United  States. 

The  committee  were  indebted  to  Mr.  Peter  Mackenzie'  for  many 
splended  wreaths,  formed  of  the  choicest  flowers,  decorating  the  covering 
of  the  remains. 

When  the  coffin  was  properly  disposed  in  the  hall,  Mr.  Dukehart, 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  363 


the  chairman  of  the  delegation  who  attended  the  remains  from  Balti 
more,  resigned  to  the  Philadelphia  Committee  the  solemn  charge,  re 
marking  : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  : — In  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Baltimore,  I  am 
now  to  deliver  to  your  charge  the  remains  of  our  deceased  fellow- 
member,  Elisha  Kent  Kane.  I  commit  to  you  his  remains  in  his 
native  city,  in  his  native  State,  in  the  hall  consecrated  to  the  cause  of 
liberty,  in  this  hall  which  may  be  truly  termed  the  Mecca  of  all  those 
who  first  promulgated  the  great  truth  that  man  was  constituted  for  self- 
government. 

I  surrender  to  you,  in  his  native  city,  the  remains  of  our  late  brother. 
I  may  be  permitted  to  say  it  is  with  deep  regret,  and  that  you  cannot 
exclusively  call  him  yours.  We  felt,  whilst  he  was  with  us,  whilst  he 
was  in  our  city,  that  we  bestowed  all  the  attention  that  was  possible  for 
us  to  do.  Although  this  is  his  native  city  and  his  native  State,  his 
fame  extends  throughout  the  civilized  world.  In  the  icy  regions  where 
he  sacrificed  himself  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  even  the  wild  Esqui 
maux  will  hand  down,  from  father  to  son,  the  name  of  the  deceased. 
Time  will  never  obliterate  the  name  of  one  who  administered  so  much 
to  their  comfort,  while  himself  suffering  so  much  for  the  cause  of 
humanity  and  science.  Permit  me  now,  gentlemen,  on  behalf  of  the 
city  and  of  the  citizens  of  Baltimore,  in  this  hall  consecrated  to  liberty, 
to  commit  to  your  charge  the  remains  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  who  sacri 
ficed  his  life  in  the  cause  of  humanity. 

Mr.  Chandler,  as  Chairman  of  the  Joint  Committee  of  Arrangements, 
received  the  sacred  deposit  with  the  following  remarks : — 

In  the  name  of  the  corporation  and  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  I  receive 
from  your  committee  these  precious  remains ;  and  in  their  name  I  thank 
you  and  those  whom  you  represent  for  the  honors  you  have  conferred 
upon  one  who  has  so  honored  his  native  city.  While  we  know  that  it 
was  from  your  abilities  to  appreciate  excellence  that  you  have  distin 
guished  yourselves  by  munificent  consideration  of  the  great  departed, 
we,  as  Philadelphians,  feel  that,  while  our  city  enjoys  a  reflected  lustre 
from  the  fame  of  our  townsman,  we  must  assume  the  obligations  which 
your  generous  attentions  create. 

You  have  brought  back  to  us  the  mortal  remains  of  one  who  has 
achieved  early  immortality ;  and  he  returns  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  alter- 


364  OBSEQUIES  OF 


native  of  the  Spartan  mother's  direction  to  her  son, — "  if  not  beJiind,  at 
least  upon,  his  shield."  Nay,  more :  a  Christian  mother's  cares  are 
rewarded,  and  her  hopes  more  than  realized,  in  the  life  of  a  son  devoted 
to  science  and  philanthropy,  and  in  that  death  whose  hopes  took  hold  on 
eternity. 

Renewing  to  you  the  assurance  of  profound  gratitude  for  the  honors 
conferred  upon  these  remains  in  your  city  and  augmented  by  your 
presence  here,  this  committee  receive  the  sacred  trust,  and  will  watch 
over  the  body  until  it  reaches  its  final  resting-place  in  the  grave. 

Mr.  Chandler  then  placed  the  remains  under  the  care  of  the  company 
of  Washington  Grays,  who  had  volunteered  to  act  as  a  guard  of  honor, 
and,  addressing  Captain  Parry,  their  commander,  he  said  : — 

Captain  Parry,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  I  now 
announce  to  you  that  they  have  determined  to  place  under  your  guard 
the  remains  of  one  so  cherished  by  us  all  as  a  Philadelphian  and  a  phi 
lanthropist.  We  trust  that  you  will  exercise  a  strict  guardianship 
during  the  night,  and  restore  to  the  committee  the  sacred  trust  which 
has  been  confided  to  your  charge. 

To  which  Captain  Parry  replied  : — 

I  assure  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  on  behalf  of  the  corps  which  I  have  the 
honor  to  command,  and  which  you  have  selected  for  the  guardianship 
of  the  remains  of  the  lamented  Dr.  Kane,  that  we  are  proud  to  accept 
your  commission ;  and  I  need  not  say,  on  my  own  part,  that  I  reply  to 
you  with  all  the  emotion  which  may  become  a  man.  We  will  vigilantly 
guard  the  remains  during  the  night,  and  return  them  to  you  in  the 
morning  as  pure  and  unsullied  as  when  we  received  them. 

On  Wednesday  evening  and  on  Thursday  morning  many  hundred 
citizens  were  admitted  to  the  Hall  of  Independence.  At  ten  o'clock 
Captain  Parry  and  his  company  were  relieved  from  further  duties  as  a 
guard  of  honor.  Captain  Parry,  in  a  few  appropriate  remarks,  resigned 
his  charge,  and  received  from  Mr.  Cuyler  the  thanks  of  the  committee 
for  the  services  which  he  and  his  corps  had  rendered.  A  splendid 
wreath  of  costly  flowers  was  presented  to  the  committee,  accompanied  by 
the  subjoined  note: — 

"TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  DR.  E.  K.  KANE." 
FROM  TWO  LADIES. 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  365 


These  were  deposited  on  the  coffin  with  the  rich  offering  of  Mr. 
Mackenzie  before  noticed. 

At  noon  precisely,  the  military,  under  Brigadier-General  George 
Cadwallader,  having  been  formed  on  Walnut  Street,  Chief-Marshal 
Ellmaker  proceeded,  with  his  aids  and  assistant  marshals,  to  form  the 
funeral  procession  according  to  the  programme  which  had  been  adopted 
by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

The  coffin  was  borne,  by  a  detachment  of  seamen  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  from  the  Hall  of  Independence  down  the  centre-walk  of  Inde 
pendence  Square  to  Walnut  Street,  where  it  was  received  with  appro 
priate  honors  by  the  military,  and  was  then  placed  upon  the  funeral  car 
prepared  expressly  for  the  occasion,  twelve  feet  in  length  and  five  in 
breadth,  set  on  low  wheels  concealed  by  the  rich  drapery  suspended 
from  the  side  of  the  car.  On  the  four  corners  were  upright  spears  with 
golden  heads,  and  around  these  were  entwined  the  American,  the  British, 
the  Spanish,  and  the  Danish  flags,  craped.  Above  the  centre  of  the  car 
was  a  dome  of  black  cloth  with  white  stripes,  and  from  the  canopy 
extended  bands  attached  to  the  top  of  the  spears  at  the  four  corners. 

The  dome  was  ornamented  with  white  stars,  and  trimmed  with  white 
cord.  The  inside  of  the  canopy  was  lined  with  white  silk.  The  coffin 
being  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  car,  the  American  flag  was  thrown 
around  it,  and  the  garlands  of  flowers  and  the  sword  of  the  deceased 
were  placed  gracefully  on  the  bier.  The  car  was  drawn  by  six  black 
horses,  each  being  attended  by  a  groom  appropriately  attired. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

This  division  was  headed  by  a  strong  body  of  police  detailed  by  the 
Mayor  to  secure  an  unobstructed  path  to  the  cortege.  The  body  was 
headed  by  the  high-constables  of  the  city,  and,  although  the  route  of 
procession,  covering  a  large  extent  of  the  central  portion  of  the  city, 
was  densely  packed  with  spectators,  universal  order  prevailed.  The 
police  were  also  distributed  along  the  line  of  the  procession. 

The  military  escort,  consisting  of  the  First  Brigade,  made  an  exceed 
ingly  creditable  and  imposing  display.  The  Brigade  comprised  the  fol 
lowing  companies  : — Squadron  Cavalry,  T.  C.  James ;  First  City  Troop, 
Captain  James;  First  City  Cavalry,  Captain  Baker;  Artillery  Battalion, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Biles,  commandant;  Washington  Grays,  Captain 
Parry ;  Philadelphia  Grays,  Captain  Rush ;  Cadwallader  Grays,  Captain 
Breece  ;  National  Artillery,  Captain  Murphy. 

First  Regiment  Infantry,  Colonel  Wm.  D.  Lewis,  Jr.,  commandant: 


366  OBSEQUIES   OF 


State  Fencibles,  Captain  Page;  Washington  Blues,  Captain  Gosline; 
National  Guards,  Captain  Lyle;  Independent  Grays,  Captain  Braceland; 
Independent  Guards,  Captain  Cromley;  Washington  Guards,  Captain 
Wagner. 

SECOND  DIVISION 

Was  preceded  by  William  H.  Moore,  undertaker.     Then  followed 
the  funeral  car  and  procession,  in  the  following  order : — 


p 

I 

i  - 
i  6 

H 

II 


PALL-BEARERS.  PALL-BEARERS. 


Governor  Pollock, 
Hon.  Horace  Binney, 
Commodore  Stewart, 
Major  C.  J.  Biddle, 
Bishop  Potter, 
Chief-Justice  Lewis, 
Doctor  Dunglison, 
J.  A.  Brown,  Esq., 


W 

C/2 


W 


Samuel  Grant,  Esq., 
Henry  Grinnell,  Esq., 
Commodore  Read, 
Doctor  Dillard,  U.S.A., 
Rev.  H.  A.  Boardrnan,  D.D., 
Hugh  L.  Hodge,  M.D., 
Hon.  Wm.  B.  Reed. 


I  W 

P    o 

II 


Comrades  of  the  Deceased  in  the  Arctic  Expedition. 

Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Committee  of  the  Authorities  and  Citizens  of  Baltimore. 
Committee  of  the  Common  Council  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
Reverend  Clergy  of  the  City. 

Mayor  and  Recorder. 
Heads  of  the  several  Departments. 

Officers  of  Councils. 
President  of  Select  and  Common  Councils. 

Select  Council. 

Common  Council. 

Ex-Members  of  Select  and  Common  Councils. 

Aldermen  of  the  City. 
Deputies  and  Clerks  of  the  several  Departments  of  the  City. 

Reporters  of  the  Press. 

Officers  of  the  State  Government. 

The  Societies  of  the  Sons  of  St.  George  and  Albion. 

The  Hibernian  Society,  the  St.  Andrew's  and  Scots  Thistle  Societies. 

Officers  of  the  United  States  Army,  Navy,  and  Marine  Corps. 
Representatives  of  Foreign  Governments  and  other  Distinguished 

Strangers. 

Judges  and  Officers  of  the  United  States  and  other  Courts. 
Officers  and  members  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 


DR.  ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  367 


Officers  and  Members  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences. 

Wardens  of  the  Port. 
The  remainder  of  the  division  paraded  in  the  following  order  : — 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

Marshal  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania, 

His  Deputies  and  Assistants. 

United  States  District  Attorney. 

Collector,  Naval  Officer,  and  Surveyor  of  the  Port,  Post-Master,  and 

other  Officers  of  the  United  States  Government. 
Director  and  Treasurer,  Officers,  and  Workmen  of  the  United  States  Mint. 

Members  and  Ex-Members  of  Congress. 
High-Sheriff  of  the  City  and  County,  and  other  City  and  County  Officers. 

Physicians. 
Members  of  the  Bar. 

Officers  and  Members  of  the  Corn  Exchange. 
Officers  of  the  Pennsylvania  Militia  not  on  duty. 

FOURTH  DIVISION. 

Medical  Faculty  and  Students  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
Medical  Faculty,  the  Graduating  Class,  and  the  Students,  of  the  Jefferson 

Medical  College  of  Philadelphia. 
Officers  and  Students  of  other  Medical  Societies. 

Philadelphia  County  Medical  Society. 

Officers  and  Under-Graduates  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

President,  Directors,  and  Officers  of  Girard  College. 

Principal  and  Faculty  of  the  High  School. 

The  Musical  Fund  Society. 
Controllers  of  the  Public  Schools. 

FIFTH  DIVISION. 

The  Fire  Department. 
Independent  Order  of  Odd-Fellows. 

Young  Men's  American  Club. 

American  Protestant  Association. 

Ancient  Order  of  Druids. 


SIXTH  DIVISION. 

Citizens. 
Police. 


368  OBSEQUIES   OF 


The  procession,  which  moved  up  Walnut  Street  to  Seventeenth  Street, 
up  Seventeenth  to  Arch,  down  Arch  to  Seventh  Street,  terminated  at 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  North  Seventh  Street ;  and,  as  it  was 
impossible  for  any  considerable  proportion  of  the  procession  to  obtain 
admittance  to  the  church,  the  public  demonstration  was  considered  as 
terminating  on  the  arrival  at  this  place.  The  remains  were  then  taken 
from  the  hearse  and  conveyed,  through  the  south  gate  of  the  enclosure, 
to  the  elevation  in  front  of  the  church,  and,  while  they  lay  in  that 
position  with  the  pall-bearers  formed  in  a  semicircle  in  the  rear,  the 
whole  procession  passed,  uncovered,  down  Seventh  Street,  in  view  of  the 
coffin.  Few  scenes  have  ever  been  presented  of  more  solemn  grandeur. 
The  body  then  was  conveyed  into  the  church,  accompanied  on  each 
side  by  the  pall-bearers,  and  followed  by  the  companions  of  Dr.  Kane  in 
the  Arctic  Expedition,  the  Committee  of  Arrangement,  the  Councils  of 
the  city,  the  Committees  from  other  cities,  the  officers  of  the  navy,  and 
other  citizens. 

The  exercises  in  the  church  commenced  with  the  singing  of  an 
anthem  from  Mozart : — "  I  Heard  a  Voice  from  Heaven." 

Then  came  the  following  beautiful  and  impressive  invocation,  delivered 
by  the  Rev.  Charles  Wadsworth,  D.D.  : — 

"Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty.  The  sinless  and  adoring 
seraphims  veil  their  faces  and  cry,  Holy  !  We  are  worms  of  the  dust, 
sinful,  miserable,  unworthy,  and  to  us  thou  art  ever  terrible  in  the 
glory  of  thy  holiness,  thou  who  hast  thy  way  in  the  whirlwind,  and 
around  whose  feet  are  thick  clouds  and  darkness.  And  now,  more  than 
is  thy  wont,  thou  seemest  terrible  to  us  in  thy  forthgoings  in  judg 
ment.  We  lift  the  eye,  and  behold  a  throne  set  in  the  heavens,  and 
out  of  it  proceed  lightnings,  and  thunderings,  and  voices,  and  before  it 
the  pestilence  and  burning  coals  at  its  feet,  and  the  smile  seems  gone 
from  thine  awful  face ;  and  thou  seemest  wroth  with  us,  and  *thou  art 
terrible  in  thine  anger.  Death,  death,  has  cast  its  shadow  on  us ;  and 
this  thy  glorious  Temple,  this  Bethel  where  the  Heavenly  ladder  lifts, 
this  altar-side  where  the  Shekinah  dwells,  this  blessed  Father's  house, 
where  we  have  met  thy  Sabbath  smiles, — alas  !  it  is  darkened  now  into  a 
house  of  mourning.  We  are  smitten,  we  are  afflicted, — the  spirit 
wounded,  the  heart  broken.  One  we  loved, — one  we  honored, — one,  it 
may  be,  too  dear  to  our  affections, — one  we  parted  with  in  fond  hope, — 


DR.  ELISHA  KENT   KANE.  369 


has  come  again  to  our  sanctuary,  the  eye  closed,  the  heart  pulseless ; 
and  we  stand  by  thine  holy  altar  stricken,  terrified,  in  the  awful 
presence  of  God  and  death. 

We  think  of  thee,  and  are  afraid.  0  thou  Almighty !  Thy  ways 
are  fearful.  We  are  on  the  water,  and  the  night  is  dark  and  the  poor 
bark  is  tempest-tossed,  and  even  the  form  of  the  Redeemer,  walking  the 
billows,  seems  phantom-like  and  dreadful,  as  it  were  a  Spirit,  and  we 
stand  back  fearful  and  trembling  from  thine  awful  path,  thou  God  of 
chastening;  and  yet,  into  thy  presence,  O  our  God,  we  come  for 
comforting.  Amid  all  thy  stern  and  terrible  manifestations,  we  know 
thou  art  merciful.  With  clouds  and  darkness  around  thee,  and  the 
pestilence  and  the  burning  coals  at  thy  feet,  thou  art  still  our  Father, 
our  heavenly  Father, — Father  pitiful  of  thy  children, — the  bruised 
reed  not  breaking  it,  the  smoking  flax  not  quenching  it.  Thy  glorious 
titles  are  Father,  Redeemer,  Comforter,  and  there  is  no  sorrow  thou 
canst  not  take  away,  no  storm  thou  canst  not  still,  no  Marah  in  the 
wilderness  thou  canst  not  make  sweet  as  the  living  water. 

And  in  this  our  hour  of  chastening  we  come  to  thee  for  comfort. 
We  have  nowhere  else  to  go.  The  world  cannot  comfort  us.  The 
glory  of  man  seems  a  fading  flower,  and  the  voices  of  earth  seem 
mournful  in  the  shadow  of  the  grave.  But  thou  canst  comfort;  and  we 
come  to  thee  in  trustful  love  and  faith.  We  come  to  sit  at  thy  feet, 
to  look  up  into  thy  face,  to  cast  ourselves,  stricken  and  sorrowful,  into 
thy  gentle  arms.  Father,  our  Father,  look  upon  us  mercifully.  Thou 
knowest  where  the  thorn  pierces.  Oh,  lift  the  load  from  the  wounded 
heart ;  oh,  bind  up  tenderly  the  wounded  spirit. 

We  are  here  in  thy  temple,  where  thy  voice  is  heard.  Speak  to  us, 
0  thou  Eternal  One,  gently,  tenderly,  lovingly.  Speak  the  words 
which  man  cannot  utter, — the  words  of  eternal  life.  Tell  us  of  the 
resurrection,  the  immortality,  the  heaven.  Make  us  to  believe  that, 
though  this  dear  eye  is  shrouded,  this  dear  heart  cold  in  death,  yet 
the  beloved  spirit  that  made  the  eye  to  sparkle  and  the  heart  to  bound 
lives  still,  lives  still!  Thanks,  thanks,  for  the  hopes  so  glorious,  so 
full  of  eternal  life,  that  cluster  around  this  shrouded  dust, — hopes  that 
our  beloved  one  is  even  now  more  than  conqueror  through  that  Redeemer 
who  died  for  him.  Oh,  give  fuller  power  to  our  faith.  Father, 
heavenly  Father,  utter  with  thy  glorious  voice  thine  own  glorious 
oracles.  Speak  to  us  of  the  resurrection  and  the  life.  Tell  us  of  the 
gates  of  pearl,  and  the  trees  of  life  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  ;  of  the 
palms  and  white  robes,  and  songs  of  victory ;  of  the  thrones  of  power, 

24 


370  OBSEQUIES   OF 


and  the  diadems  of  splendor;  of  the  places  prepared  in  the  house  of 
many  mansions ;  "  and  the  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory."  Father,  our  heavenly  Father,  we  are  listening  for  thy  blessed 
voice.  Oh,  speak  to  us  !  Speak  to  us  gently,  joyfully,  till  faith 
grows  strong  in  our  stricken  spirits ;  so  that,  time  seeming  the  vapor 
and  eternity  the  reality,  we  may  look  not  down  upon  this  sleeping  dust, 
saying  farewell,  but  rather  upward  to  the  risen  spirit  in  the  firmament, 
saying,  All  hail,  redeemed  one.  Oh,  comfort  us,  thou  heavenly  Com 
forter,  thou  merciful  Savior,  in  whom  "  whosoever  liveth  and  belie veth 
shall  never  die."  Thou  Lamb  of  God,  who  takest  away  the  sins  of  the 
world,  fill  our  stricken  hearts  with  thine  own  glorious  grace,  so  that  we 
may  go  forth  as  Mary,  to  find  the  grave  of  our  beloved  lustrous  with  the 
vision  of  angel,  and  write  over  it  no  sadder  words  than  these  : — "  Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  !"  whilst  our  song  of  triumphant  faith, 
begun  here  in  tears,  shall  go  on  in  eternity  : — "  Unto  Him  who  loved  us, 
and  washed  us  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  his  Father,"  be  glory  and  honor  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 

The  same  divine  also  read  the  selection — 

"  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life ;  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though 
he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live.  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the 
Lord,"  &c. 

The  hymn  "  Hark  to  the  Solemn  Bell"  was  then  sung  by  the  choir. 

REV.  CHARLES  W.  SHIELDS, 

Pastor  of  the  Church,  then  delivered  the  following  Funeral  Discourse.  • 

It  is  a  noble  instinct  which  prompts  us  to  honor  the  dead.  Humanity 
joins  with  religion  in  suppressing  all  earthly  distinctions  and  passions  at 
the  mouth  of  the  tomb.  The  mansion  may  be  envied,  the  hovel  may  be 
scorned ;  but  the  grave  is  alike  revered,  whether  it  be  adorned  with 
sculptured  marble  or  decked  with  a  simple  flower. 

It  would  seem  that  in  the  mortal  remains  of  a  fellow-creature  we 
respect  a  fate  that  we  know  must  soon  be  our  own,  and,  conscious  of  the 
worth  of  a  soul,  would  do  homage  even  to  the  ruined  temple  in  which 
it  was  enshrined. 

But  when  the  object  of  such  feelings  concentrates  in  himself  the  best    <: 
traits  of  our  nature,  and   has  been    conducted  by  Providence  to 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  371 


eminence  from  which  he  illustrates  them  in  the  view  of  multitudes,  the 
ordinary  cold  respect  warms  to  admiration  and  melts  into  love.  We 
behold  the  image  of  our  common  humanity  reflected  and  magnified  in 
him  as  a  cherished  ideal.  Death,  which  makes  sacred  every  thing  it 
touches,  throws  a  mild  halo  around  his  memory,  and  we  hasten  to  bring 
to  his  grave — all  that  we  now  have  to  give — the  poor  tribute  of  our 
praises  and  tears. 

We  are  assembled,  my  friends,  to  perform  such  comely  though  sad 
duties  in  honor  of  a  man  who,  within  the  short  lifetime  of  thirty-five 
years,  under  the  combined  impulses  of  humanity  and  science,  has 
traversed  nearly  the  whole  of  the  planet  in  its  most  inaccessible  places ; 
has  gathered  here  and  there  a  laurel  from  every  walk  of  physical  research 
in  which  he  strayed  j  has  gone  into  the  thick  of  perilous  adventure, 
abstracting  in  the  spirit  of  philosophy,  yet  seeing  and  loving  in  the  spirit 
of  poesy ;  has  returned  to  invest  the  very  story  of  his  escape  with  the 
charms  of  literature  and  art;  and,  dying  at  length  in  the  morning  of  his 
fame,  is  now  lamented,  with  mingled  affection  and  pride,  by  his  country 
and  the  world. 

Death  discloses  the  human  estimate  of  character.  That  mournful 
pageant  which  for  days  past  has  been  wending  its  way  hither,  across  the 
solemn  main,  along  our  mighty  rivers,  through  cities  clad  in  habiliments 
of  grief,  with  the  learned,  the  noble,  and  the  good  mingling  in  its  train, 
is  but  the  honest  tribute  of  hearts  that  could  have  no  motives  but 
respect  and  love.  To  us  belongs  the  sad  privilege  of  at  length  closing 
the  national  obsequies  in  his  native  city  and  at  the  grave  of  his  kindred. 
Fittingly  we  have  suffered  his  honored  remains  to  repose  a  few  pensive 
hours  at  the  shrine  where  patriotism  gathers  its  fairest  memories  and 
choicest  honors.  Now,  at  last,  we  bear  them — thankful  to  the  Provi 
dence  by  which  they  have  been  preserved  from  mishap  and  peril — to 
the  sacred  altar  at  which  he  was  reared. 

I  do  not  forget,  my  friends,  the  severer  solemnities  of  the  place  and 
presence.  I  remind  you  of  their  claim.  How  empty  the  applause  of 
mortals  as  vaunted  in  the  ear  of  Heaven  !  How  idle  the  distinctions 
among  creatures  involved  in  a  common  insignificance  by  death  and  sin  ! 
What  a  mockery  the  flimsy  shows  with  which  we  cover  up  the  realities 
of  judgment  and  eternity !  The  thought  may  well  temper  the  pride  of 
our  grief ;  yet  it  need  not  stanch  its  flow.  No  !  I  should  but  feel  that 
the  goodness  of  that  God  by  whose  munificent  hand  his  creature  was 
endowed  had  been  wronged,  did  we  not  pause  to  reflect  a  while  upon  his 
virtues  and  drop  some  manly  and  Christian  tears  over  his  early  grave. 


372  OBSEQUIES    OF 


Elisha  Kent  Kane- — a  name  now  to  be  pronounced  in  the  simple 
dignity  of  history — was  bred  in  the  lap  of  science  and  trained  in  the 
school  of  peril,  that  he  might  consecrate  himself  to  a  philanthropic 
purpose  to  which  so  young  he  has  fallen  a  martyr.  The  story  of  his 
life  is  already  a  fireside  tale.  Multitudes,  in  admiring  fancy,  have 
retraced  his  footprints.  Now,  that  that  brief  career  is  closed  in  death, 
we  recur  to  it  with  a  mournful  fondness,  from  the  daring  exploits  which 
formed  the  pastime  of  his  youth,  to  the  graver  tasks  to  which  he 
brought  his  developed  manhood.  Though  born  to  ease  and  elegance, 
when  but  a  young  student,  used  to  academic  tastes  and  honors,  we  see 
him  breaking  away  from  the  refinements  of  life  into  the  rough  paths  of 
privation  and  danger.  Through  distant  and  varied  regions  we  follow 
him  in  his  pursuit  of  scientific  discovery  and  adventure.  On  the 
borders  of  China — within  the  unexplored  depths  of  the  crater  of  Luzon 
— in  India  and  Ceylon — in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific — by  the  sources 
of  the  Nile — amid  the  frowning  sphinxes  of  Egypt  and  the  classic 
ruins  of  Greece — along  the  fevered  coast  of  Africa — on  the  embattled 
plains  of  Mexico — we  behold  him  everywhere  blending  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  scholar  with  the  daring  of  the  soldier  and  the  research  of  the 
man  of  science. 

Yet  these  were  but  the  preparatory  trials  through  which  Providence 
was  leading  him  to  an  object  worthy  his  matured  powers  and  noblest 
aims.  Suddenly  he  becomes  a  centre  of  universal  interest.  With  the 
prayers  and  hopes  of  his  country  following  after  him,  he  disappears 
from  the  abodes  of  men,  on  a  pilgrimage  of  patience  and  love,  into  the  icy 
solitudes  of  the  North.  Within  the  shadow  of  two  sunless  winters  his 
fate  is  wrapt  from  our  view.  At  length,  like  one  come  back  from 
another  world,  he  returns  to  thrill  us  with  the  marvels  of  his  escape, 
and  transport  us,  by  his  graphic  pen,  into  scenes  we  scarcely  realize  as 
belonging  to  the  earth  we  inhabit.  All  classes  are  penetrated  and 
touched  by  the  story  so  simply,  so  modestly,  so  eloquently  told.  The 
nation  takes  him  to  its  heart  with  patriotic  pride.  In  hopeful  fancy,  a 
still  brighter  career  is  pictured  before  him, — when,  alas  !  the  vision, 
while  yet  it  dazzles,  dissolves  in  tears.  We  awake  to  the  sense  of  a  loss 
which  no  contemporary,  at  his  age,  could  occasion. 

Of  that  loss  let  us  not  here  attempt  too  studious  an  estimate.  These 
sad  solemnities  may  simply  point  us  to  the  more  moral  qualities  and 
actions  in  view  of  which  every  bereavement  most  deeply  affects  us. 

As  a  votary  of  science,  he  will  indeed  receive  fitting  tributes.  There 
will  not  be  wanting  those  who  shall  do  justice  to  that  ardent  thirst  for 


DR.   ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  373 


truth  which  in  him  amounted  to  one  of  the  controlling  passions,  to 
that  intellect  so  severe  in  induction  yet  sagacious  in  conjecture,  and  to 
those  contributions,  so  various  and  valuable,  to  the  existing  stock  of 
human  knowledge.  But  his  memory  will  not  be  cherished  alone  in 
philosophic  minds.  His  is  not  a  name  to  be  honored  only  within  the 
privileged  circles  of  the  learned.  There  is  for  him  another  laurel, 
greener  even  than  that  which  Science  wreaths  for  her  most  gifted  sons. 
He  is  endeared  to  the  popular  heart  as  its  chosen  ideal  of  the  finest 
sentiment  that  adorns  our  earthly  nature. 

Philanthropy,  considered  as  among  things  which  are  lovely  and  of 
good  report,  is  the  flower  of  human  virtue.  Of  all  the  passions  that 
have  their  root  in  the  soil  of  this  present  life  there  is  none  which, 
when  elevated  into  a  conscious  duty,  is  so  disinterested  and  pure.  In 
the  domestic  affections  there  is  something  of  mere  blind  instinct;  in 
friendship  there  is  the  limit  of  congeniality ;  in  patriotism  there  are 
the  restrictions  of  local  attachment  and  national  antipathy ;  but  in  that 
love  of  race  which  seeks  its  object  in  man  as  man,  of  whatever  kindred, 
creed,  or  clime,  earthly  morality  appears  divested  of  the  last  dross  of 
selfishness,  and  challenges  our  highest  admiration  and  praise. 

Providence,  who  governs  the  world  by  ideas,  selects  the  fit  occasions 
and  men  for  their  illustration.  In  an  age  when  philanthropic  senti 
ments,  through  the  extension  of  Christianity  and  civilization,  are  on  the 
increase,  a  fit  occasion  for  their  display  is  offered  in  the  peril  of  a  bold 
explorer,  for  whose  rescue  a  cry  of  anguished  affection  rings  in  the  ears 
of  the  nations ;  and  the  man  found  adequate  to  that  occasion  is  he  whose 
death  we  mourn. 

If  there  was  every  thing  congruous  in  the  scene  of  the  achievement, — 
laid,  as  it  was,  in  those  distant  regions  where  the  lines  of  geography 
converge  beyond  all  the  local  distinctions  that  divide  and  separate  man 
from  his  fellow,  and  among  rigors  of  cold  and  darkness,  and  disease  and 
famine,  that  would  task  to  their  utmost  the  powers  of  human  endurance, 
— not  less  suited  was  the  actor  who  was  to  enter  upon  that  scene  and 
enrich  the  world  with  such  a  lesson  of  heroic  beneficence.  Himself  of 
a  country  estranged  from  that  of  the  imperilled  explorers,  the  simple 
act  of  assuming  the  task  of  their  rescue  was  a  beautiful  tribute  to  the 
sentiment  of  national  amity ;  while,  as  his  warrant  for  undertaking  it, 
he  seemed  lacking  in  no  single  qualification.  To  a  scientific  education 
and  the  experience  of  a  cosmopolite  he  joined  an  assemblage  of  moral 
qualities  so  rich  in  their  separate  excellence,  and  so  rare  in  their  combi 
nation,  that  it  is  difficult  to  effect  their  analysis. 


374  OBSEQUIES    OF 


Conspicuous  among  them  was  that  elementary  virtue  in  every  philan 
thropic  mission, — an  exalted  yet  minute  benevolence.  It  was  the  crown 
ing  charm  of  his  character,  and  a  controlling  motive  in  his  perilous  enter 
prise.  Other  promptings  indeed  there  were,  neither  suppressed,  nor  in 
themselves  to  he  depreciated.  That  passion  for  adventure,  that  love  of 
science,  that  generous  ambition,  which  stimulated  his  youthful  exploits, 
appear  now  under  the  check  and  guidance  of  a  still  nobler  impulse.  It 
is  his  sympathy  with  the  lost  and  suffering,  and  the  duteous  conviction 
that  it  may  lie  in  his  power  to  liberate  them  from  their  icy  dungeon, 
which  thrill  his  heart  and  nerve  him  to  his  hardy  task.  In  his  avowed 
aim,  the  interests  of  geography  were  to  be  subordinate  to  the  claims  of 
humanity.  And  neither  the  entreaties  of  affection,  nor  the  imperilling 
of  a  fame  which  to  a  less  modest  spirit  would  have  seemed  too  precious 
to  hazard,  could  swerve  him  from  the  generous  purpose. 

And  yet  this  was  not  a  benevolence  which  could  exhaust  itself  in  any 
mere  dazzling,  visionary  project.  It  was  as  practical  as  it  was  compre 
hensive.  It  could  descend  to  all  the  minutiae  of  personal  kindness  and 
gracefully  disguise  itself  even  in  the  most  menial  offices.  When  defeated 
in  its  great  object,  and  forced  to  resign  the  proud  hope  of  a  philanthro 
pist,  it  turns  to  lavish  itself  on  his  suffering  comrades,  whom  he  leads 
almost  to  forget  the  commander  in  the  friend.  With  unselfish  assiduity 
and  cheerful  patience,  he  devotes  himself  as  a  nurse  and  counsellor  to 
relieve  their  wants  and  buoy  them  up  under  the  most  appalling  misfor 
tunes,  and,  in  those  still  darker  seasons  when  the  expedition  is 
threatened  with  disorganization,  conquers  them  not  less  by  kindness 
than  by  address.  Does  a  party  withdraw  from  him  under  opposite 
counsels  ?  they  are  assured,  in  the  event  of  their  return,  of  "a  brother's 
welcome."  Are  tidings  brought  him  that  a  portion  of  the  little  band  are 
forced  to  halt,  he  knows  not  where,  in  the  snowy  desert  ?  he  is  off  through 
the  midnight  cold  for  their  rescue,  and  finds  his  reward  in  the  touching 
assurance,  "  They  knew  that  he  would  come."  In  sickness  he  tends 
them  like  a  brother,  and  at  death  drops  a  tear  of  manly  sensibility  on 
their  graves.  Even  the  wretched  savages,  who  might  be  supposed  to 
have  forfeited  the  claim,  share  in  his  kindly  attentions ;  and  it  is  with 
something  of  genuine  human  feeling  that  he  parts  from  them  at  last,  as 
"  children  of  the  same  Creator." 

In  a  cause  of  humanity  like  that  which  he  had  espoused,  we  feel  that 
something  more  was  needed  than  the  diffuse  and  aimless  philanthropy 
which  is  loud  in  panegyric  upon  human  nature,  while  it  disdains  the 
details  of  practical  well-doing;  and,  when  in  connection  with  such  high, 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  375 


benevolent  purpose  we  find  a  native  goodness  of  heart  disclosing  such, 
constant  self-sacrifice,  we  are  at  no  loss  to  recognise  his  vocation. 

Then,  as  the  fitting  support  of  this  noble  quality,  there  was  also  the 
stauncher,  but  not  less  requisite  virtue,  of  an  indomitable  energy.  It 
was  the  iron  column  around  whose  capital  that  delicate  lily-work  was 
woven.  His  was  not  a  benevolence  which  must  waste  itself  in  mere 
sentiment,  for  want  of  a  power  of  endurance  adequate  to  support  it  through 
hardship  and  peril.  In  that  slight  physical  frame,  suggestive  only  of 
refined  culture  and  intellectual  grace,  there  dwelt  a  sturdy  force  of  will 
which  no  combination  of  material  terrors  seemed  to  appall,  and,  by  a  sort 
of  magnetic  impulse,  subjected  all  inferior  spirits  to  its  control.  It  was 
the  calm  power  of  reason  and  duty  asserting  their  superiority  over  mere 
brute  courage,  and  compelling  the  instinctive  homage  of  Herculean 
strength  and  prowess. 

With  what  firm  yet  conscientious  resolve  does  he  quell  the  rising  symp 
toms  of  rebellion  which  threaten  to  add  the  horrors  of  mutiny  to  those 
of  famine  and  disease  !  And,  all  through  that  stern  battle  with  Nature 
in  her  most  savage  haunts,  how  he  ever  seems  to  turn  his  mild  front 
toward  her  frowning  face,  if  in  piteous  appealing,  yet  not  less  in  fixed 
resignation  ! 

We  instinctively  exult  in  every  triumph  of  mind  over  matter,  in  every 
fresh  aggression  of  art  upon  nature,  and  cannot  but  feel,  even  while 
touched  by  their  sufferings,  a  generous  pride  in  those  who  enlarge  our  ideas 
of  human  endurance  and  strengthen  our  faith  in  moral  as  distinguished 
from  material  power.  But  when  such  intrepidity  and  fortitude  are  dis 
played  in  the  pursuit  of  lofty,  unselfish  aims,  it  is  as  if  we  saw  the  olden 
romance  of  chivalry  returning,  in  a  practical  age,  to  enlist  the  hardiest 
virtues  in  the  service  of  the  gentlest  and  purest  charities.  The  heart 
must  applaud  in  the  midst  of  its  pity,  and  smiles  an  approval  even 
through  its  tears. 

But  if,  in  the  conduct  of  that  heroic  enterprise,  benevolence  appeared 
supported  by  energy  and  patience,  so,  too,  was  it  equipped  with  a  most 
marvellous  practical  tact.  He  brought  to  his  task  not  merely  the 
resources  of  acquired  skill,  but  a  native  power  of  adapting  himself  to 
emergencies,  and  a  fertility  in  devising  expedients,  which  no  occasion 
ever  seemed  to  baffle.  Immured  in  a  dreadful  seclusion,  where  the  com 
bined  terrors  of  nature  forced  him  into  all  the  closer  contact  with  the 
passions  of  man,  he  not  only  rose,  by  his  energy,  superior  to  them  both, 
but,  by  his  ready  executive  talent,  converted  each  to  his  ministry.  Cir 
cumstances  which  would  have  whelmed  ordinary  minds  in  helpless 


376  OBSEQUIES    OF 


bewilderment  appeared  only  to  enhance  his  self-collection  and  develop 
his  versatile  genius.  Whether  he  had  to  deal  with  the  humors  of  a  sick 
and  desponding  crew,  or  to  provide  subsistence  and  amusement  in  the 
midst  of  a  lifeless  solitude,  or  to  snatch  the  flower  of  opportunity  at  the 
dizzy  brink  of  peril, — in  every  form  of  crisis  he  displayed  the  same  keen 
perception  of  surrounding  realities,  with  the  same  quick  and  nice  adjust 
ment  of  himself  to  their  demands.  Even  the  wild  inmates  of  that  icy 
world,  from  the  mere  stupid  wonder  with  which  at  first  they  regarded 
his  imported  marvels  of  civilization,  were  at  length  forced  to  descend 
to  a  genuine  respect  and  love,  as  they  saw  him  outwitting  their  expe 
rience  by  his  ingenuity  and  competing  with  them  in  the  practice  of  their 
own  rude,  stoical  virtues. 

We  love  goodness;  we  admire  courage;  but  when  both  are  found 
armed  for  practice  with  an  adaptive  faculty  which  was  as  the  skill  of  a 
strong  hand  that  drew  its  pulse  from  a  warm  heart,  there  is  nothing  left 
us  but  to  wonder  at  a  combination  so  symmetrical  and  rare.  From  our 
contemplation  of  the  man  we  revert  to  the  occasion  to  which  he  is 
to  be  adjusted ;  and  as  we  picture  the  genius  of  philanthropy  leading 
forth  her  trained  votary  after  a  perilous  prize  which  has  been  planted 
sheer  beyond  the  boundaries  of  all  local  jealousy  and  pride,  and  at  the 
magnetic  centre  of  a  universal  sympathy,  we  know  not  whether  more 
to  admire  the  fitness  of  the  scene  to  the  actor,  or  of  the  actor  to  the 
scene.  So  does  Providence,  with  poetical  rectitude,  arrange  the  drama 
of  a  good  deed. 

To  such  more  sterling  qualities  were  joined  the  graces  of  an  affluent 
cheerfulness,  that  never  deserted  him  in  the  darkest  hours, — a  delicate 
and  capricious  humor,  glancing  among  the  most  rugged  realities  like  the 
sunshine  upon  the  rocks, — and,  above  all,  that  invariable  stamp  of  true 
greatness,  a  beautiful  modesty,  ever  sufficiently  content  with  itself  to  be 
above  the  necessity  of  pretension.  These  were  like  the  ornaments  of  a 
Grecian  building,  which,  though  they  may  not  enter  into  the  effect  of 
the  outline,  are  found  to  impart  to  it,  the  more  nearly  it  is  surveyed,  all 
the  grace  and  finish  of  the  most  exquisite  sculpture. 

And  yet,  strong  and  fair  as  were  the  proportions  of  that  character  in 
its  more  conspicuous  aspects,  we  should  still  have  been  disappointed  did 
we  not  find,  albeit  hidden  deep  beneath  them,  a  firm  basis  of  religious 
sentiment.  For  all  serious  and  thoughtful  minds  this  is  the  purest 
charm  of  those  graphic  volumes  in  which  he  has  recorded  the  story  of 
his  wonderful  escapes  and  deliverances.  There  is  everywhere  shining 
through  its  pages  a  chastened  spirit,  too  familiar  with  human  weakness 


DR.  ELISHA  KENT   KANE.  377 


to  overlook  a  Providence  in  his  trials,  and  too  conscious  of  human  insig 
nificance  to  disdain  its  recognition.  Now,  in  his  lighter,  more  pensive 
moods,  we  see  it  rising,  on  the  wing  of  a  devout  fancy,  into  that  region 
where  piety  becomes  also  poetry  : — 

"I  have  trodden  the  deck  and  the  floes  when  the  life  of  earth  seemed 
suspended, — its  movements,*its  sounds,  its  colorings,  its  companionships; 
and,  as  I  looked  on  the  radiant  hemisphere,  circling  above  me,  as  if 
rendering  worship  to  the  unseen  centre  of  light,  I  have  ejaculated,  in 
humility  of  spirit,  'Lord,  what  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of 
him  ?  " 

Again,  in  graver  emergencies,  it  appears  as  a  habitual  resource,  to 
which  he  has  come  in  conscious  dependence  : — 

"  A  trust,  based  on  experience  as  well  as  on  promises,  buoyed  me  up 
at  the  worst  of  times.  Call  it  fatalism,  as  you  ignorantly  may,  there  is 
that  in  the  story  of  every  eventful  life  which  teaches  the  inefficiency  of 
human  means,  and  the  present  control  of  a  Supreme  Agency.  See  how 
often  relief  has  come  at  the  moment  of  extremity,  in  forms  strangely 
unsought,  almost  at  the  time  unwelcome ;  see,  still  more,  how  the  back 
has  been  strengthened  to  its  increasing  burdens,  and  the  heart  cheered  by 
some  conscious  influence  of  an  unseen  Power.7' 

And  at  length  we  find  it  settling  into  that '  assurance  which  belongs 
to  an  experienced  faith  and  hope : — 

"I  never  doubted  for  an  instant  that  the  same  Providence  which  had 
guarded  us  through  the  long  darkness  of  winter  was  still  watching  over 
us  for  good,  and  that  it  was  yet  in  reserve  for  us — for  some;  I  dared  not 
hope  for  all — to  bear  back  the  tidings  of  our  rescue  to  a  Christian  land." 

Those  Arctic  Sabbaths  were  "  full  of  sober  thought  and  wise  resolve." 
We  hear  no  profane  oath  vaunting  itself  from  that  little  ice-bound  islet 
of  human  life,  where  man  has  been  thrown  so  helplessly  into  the  hands 
of  God ;  but  rather,  in  its  stead,  murmured  amid  the  wild  uproar  of  the 
storm,  that  daily  prayer,  "Lord,  accept  our  thanks,  and  restore  us  to 
our  homes/'  And  when  at  length  that  prayer  is  graciously  answered, 
it  is  the  same  spirit  which  brings  him  whither  now,  alas !  can  only  be 
brought  these  poor  remains, — under  the  devout  impulse,  "  I  will  pay  my 
vows  unto  the  Lord  in  the  presence  of  all  his  people."  Let  us  believe 
that  a  faith  which  supported  him  through  trials  worse  than  death  did 
not  fail  him  when  death  itself  came. 

Into  that  last  tender  scene  both  religion  and  delicacy  alike  forbid  that 
we  should  too  curiously  intrude.  Affection  will  prize  its  melancholy 
though  sweet  reminiscences,  long  after  the  more  public  grief  has  sub- 


378  OBSEQUIES   OF 


sided.     Enough  only  of  the  veil  may  be  drawn  to  admit  us  to  a  privileged 
sympathv. 

The  disease  by  which  Dr.  Kane  was  prostrated  was  that  terrible 
scourge  of  Arctic  life,  some  seeds  of  which  remained  in  his  system  on 
his  return,  but  were  afterward  developed  and  aggravated  by  the 
exhausting  literary  labors  incident  to  the  narrative  of  the  Expedition. 
Entirely  under-estimating  those  labors,  (of  which  but  few  of  us  are  pre 
pared  to  form  an  adequate  conception,)  he  was  quite  too  thoughtless  of 
the  claims  of  a  body  he  had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  subject  to  his 
purpose,  and  only  awoke  to  a  discovery  of  the  error  when  it  was  too  late. 
With  this  melancholy  conviction,  he  announced  the  completion  of  the 
work  to  a  friend  in  the  modest  and  touching  sentence  : — "  The  book,  poor 
as  it  is,  has  been  my  coffin." 

He  left  the  country  under  a  presentiment  that  he  should  never  return. 
For  the  first  time  in  his  life,  departure  is  shaded  with  foreboding.  It 
was  indeed  an  alarming  symptom  to  find  that  iron  nerve,  which  hitherto 
had  sustained  him  under  shocks  apparently  not  less  severe,  thus  be 
ginning  to  falter.  Yet  it  will  enhance  the  interest  that  now  gathers 
around  his  memory  to  learn  that  even  then  the  great  purpose  of  his  life 
he  had  not  wholly  abandoned,  but,  in  spite  of  the  most  serious  entreaties, 
was  already  projecting  another  Arctic  expedition  of  research  and  rescue. 
This  object  of  his  visit  he  was  not  destined  to  mature.  Neither  was  it 
to  be  his  privilege  to  enjoy  the  honors  that  awaited  him.  Successive 
and  more  virulent  attacks  of  disease  oblige  him  to  recur  to  the  last- 
resorts  of  the  invalid.  In  hope  of  repairing  the  wounds  inflicted  by 
the  fierce  rigors  of  the  North,  he  is  borne  to  the  more  genial  South, 
where  at  length,  beneath  its  ardent  skies  and  amidst  its  fragrant  airs, 
supported  by  the  ministries  of  love  and  the  consolations  of  religion,  his 
life  drew  gently  to  a  close. 

In  the  near  approach  of  death  he  was  tranquil  and  composed.  With 
too  little  strength  either  to  support  or  indicate  any  thing  of  rapture,  he 
was  yet  sufficiently  conscious  of  his  condition  to  perform  some  last  acts 
befitting  the  solemn  emergency.  In  reference  to  those  whom  he  con 
ceived  to  have  deeply  injured  him,  he  expressed  his  cordial  forgiveness. 
To  each  of  the  watching  group  around  him  his  hand  is  given  in  the  fond 
pressure  of  a  final  parting;  and  then,  as  if  sensible  that  his  ties  to  earth 
are  loosening,  he  seeks  consolation  from  the  requested  reading  of  such 
Scripture  sentences  as  had  been  the  favorite  theme  of  his  thoughtful 
hours. 

Now  he  hears  those  soothing  beatitudes  which  fell  from  the  lips  of 


DR.  ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  379 


the  Man  of  Sorrows  in  successive  benediction.  Then  he  will  have  re 
peated  to  him  that  sweet,  sacred  pastoral, — 

"  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd  :  I  shall  not  want.  He  maketh  me  to 
lie  down  in  green  pastures  :  he  leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters. 
Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will 
fear  no  evil ;  for  thou  art  with  me :  thy  rod  and  thy  staff,  they  comfort  me." 

At  length  are  recited  the  consolatory  words  with  which  the  Savior 
took  leave  of  his  weeping  disciples  : — 

"  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled  :  ye  believe  in  God;  believe  also  in 
me.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions :  if  it  were  not  so,  I 
would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you." 

And  at  last,  in  the  midst  of  this  comforting  recital,  he  is  seen  to  expire, 
— so  gently  that  the  reading  still  proceeds  some  moments  after  other 
watchers  have  become  aware  that  he  is  already  beyond  the  reach  of  any 
mortal  voice.  Thus,  in  charity  with  all  mankind,  and  with  words  of  the 
Redeemer  in  his  ear,  conveyed  by  tones  the  most  familiar  and  beloved 
on  earth,  his  spirit  passed  from  the  world  of  men. 

The  heart  refuses  to  deal  with  such  a  reality.  Death  never  seems  so 
much  a  usurper  on  the  domain  of  life  as  at  the  grave  of  the  young  and 
the  gifted.  In  fancy  we  strive  to  complete  that  brilliant  fragment  of  a 
history  so  abruptly  ended.  We  are  carried  forward  into  the  future,  in 
an  effort  to  picture  all  that  he  might  have  been  to  his  country  and  the 
world,  until,  drawn  back  again  by  these  sad  shows  of  our  loss  and  sorrow, 
we  pronounce  nothing  so  visionary  as  this  fleeting  life,  and  nothing  so 
empty  as  human  glory. 

And  thus  is  it  ever  the  same  trite  lesson  we  learn  at  each  new-made 
grave.  There  was  never  any  human  life  so  complete  that  it  could 
be  finished  on  earth.  There  was  never  any  human  spirit  so  gifted 
that  it  could  accomplish  its  destiny  here.  The  most  illustrious  actions, 
the  most  varied  attainments,  the  most  disciplined  virtues,  are  at  best  but 
crude,  elementary  trials  of  a  novitiate  state.  Could  we  follow  the  regen 
erate  spirit  as  it  emerges  from  its  earthly  pupilage;  could  we  trace 
its  career  from  scene  to  scene  of  expanding  effort  and  from  accession 
to  accession  in  knowledge,  love,  and  joy;  could  we  pause  with  it,  at 
length,  on  some  far-distant  peak  of  high  attainment,  whence,  as  in  re 
trospective  fancy,  it  looks  back  upon  rolling  worlds  with  their  changing 
climates  and  histories, — how  would  the  science,  the  philanthropy,  the 
heroism  of  this  vanishing  life  have  dwindled  away  to  the  merest  play 
things,  the  mimic  smiles  and  tears,  of  the  childhood  of  our  immortality ! 
Let  the  chaplet  be  woven,  let  the  banner  be  shrouded,  let  the  dirge  be 


380  OBSEQUIES    OF 


wailed,  and,  with  fair,  fond  pageantry,  let  dust  be  rendered  back  to  its  kin 
dred  dust ;  but  we  shall  not  have  soared  to  the  highest  moral  of  the  elegiac 
spectacle,  until,  from  that  eternity  which  lies  beyond  this  tomb  of  blighted 
hope  and  buried  glory,  we  return  to  write  upon  it — This  also  is  vanity. 

Alas !  the  hand  of  the  victor  drops  in  death  at  the  moment  it  is 
extended  to  grasp  the  laurel. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon  the  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman  delivered 
the  following  impressive  prayer: — 

0  Lord  our  God,  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  thou  art  God ;  and 
besides  thee  there  is  none  else.  In  the  name  of  thy  beloved  Son,  our 
Mediator,  Jesus  Christ,  we  come  before  thee,  that  we  may  obtain  mercy 
and  find  grace  to  help  in  this  time  of  need. 

We  acknowledge  the  righteousness  of  that  sentence  which  has  gone 
out  against  us, — "Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return;"  for 
we  have  sinned  against  thee  and  done  evil  in  thy  sight,  and  we  are  justly 
exposed  to  the  penalty  of  thy  holy  law.  It  is  of  thy  mercies  that  we 
are  not  consumed,  because  thy  compassions  fail  not.  Oh,  deal  not  with 
us  according  to  our  desert,  but  according  to  the  plenitude  of  thy  grace 
and  mercy  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

We  bow  down  under  this  afflictive  dispensation  of  thy  Providence, 
wherein  thou  art  staining  the  pride  of  human  glory  and  admonishing 
us  of  our  frailty.  All  flesh  indeed  is  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as 
the  flower  of  the  field.  We  feel,  as  we  gather,  a  stricken  people,  around 
these  precious  remains,  that  thou  art  a  great  God,  and  a  great  King 
above  all  Gods.  Thou  doest  thy  will  in  the  army  of  heaven  and  among 
the  inhabitants'  of  the  earth ;  and  none  can  stay  thine  hand,  or  say  unto 
thee,  «  What  doest  thou  ?" 

We  render  thanks  to  thee  for  all  thy  goodness  to  thy  servant  departed. 
For  the  radiant  gifts  with  which  thou  wast  pleased  to  endow  him,  we 
praise  thee.  For  that  beneficent  Providence  in  which  he  trusted,  and 
which  never  forsook  him,  we  praise  thee.  For  all  that  he  was  enabled 
to  do  for  humanity  and  for  science,  we  praise  thee.  And  above  all  do 
we  praise  thee  for  those  divine  supports  and  consolations  which  sus 
tained  him  in  sickness  and  in  death. 

And  now,  0  Lord,  we  humbly  beseech  thee  to  heal  the  wound  which 
thou  hast  made.  Bind  up  the  hearts  of  this  afflicted  household,  and 
comfort  them  under  their  great  bereavement.  Help  them  to  look,  away 
from  every  earthly  solace,  to  Him  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life, 


DR.    ELISHA  KENT   KANE.  381 


and  send  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  divine  Comforter,  to  assuage  their  grief,  to 
inspire  them  with  resignation,  to  fill  them  with  the  fulness  of  God,  and 
to  enable  them  to  say,  "  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away : 
blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord/'  * 

Be  merciful  also,  we  entreat  thee,  to  thy  servants,  the  surviving  com 
panions  of  our  brother  beloved,  who  shared  his  duties  and  his  dangers. 
Comfort  their  hearts,  and  lead  them  to  seek  in  Jesus  Christ  an  enduring 
portion. 

And  may  this  mournful  visitation  be  sanctified  to  this  great  com 
munity  !  Let  it  not  be  in  vain  that  we  are  assembled  to-day  around  the 
bier  of  one  upon  whom  earth  had  so  accumulated  its  honors  and  to 
whom  so  many  hearts  were  drawn  in  loving  confidence  and  affection. 
Especially  may  the  monitory  lessons  of  this  event  be  impressed  upon 
the  hearts  of  those  who,  like  him,  are  engaged  in  the  pursuits  of  science. 
May  the  men  of  genius,  and  the  men  of  skill,  and  the  men  of  high 
renown,  feel  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom,  and 
that  science  is  then  fulfilling  its  noblest  mission  when  it  is  unfolding  the 
glories  of  the  Creator  in  the  works  of  his  hands,  and  revealing  to  his 
creatures  that  beneficent  Providence  which  is  over  all  and  in  all !  And 
may  they  joyfully  and  gratefully  come  with  their  gifts  and  their  tri 
umphs,  and  lay  them  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  is  over  all, 
God  blessed  forever ! 

May  it  please  thee  to  preserve  us  all  from  the  idolatry  of  the  world 
and  from  the  neglect  of  things  eternal !  So  teach  us  to  number  our 
days  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom.  Enable  us  to  follow 
those  who  through  faith  and  patience  have  inherited  the  promises; 
and  receive  us  at  length  into  thy  heavenly  kingdom. 

These  and  all  other  mercies  needful  to  us  we  humbly  ask,  in  the 
name  and  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  Mediator.  Amen. 

At  the  close  of  the  prayer  the  beautiful  and  appropriate  "Solo"  com 
posed  by  Dr.  Calcott  was  sung  by  Prof.  T.  Bishop,  with  striking  effect, 
as  follows : — 

"  Forgive,  blest  shade,  the  tributary  tear 

That  mourns  thy  exit  from  a  world  like  this ; 

Forgive  the  wish  that  would  have  kept  thee  here 

And  stay'd  thy  progress  to  the  seat  of  bliss. 

"No  more  confined  to  grovelling  scenes  of  night, 

No  more  a  tenant  pent  in  mortal  clay ; 
Now  we  would  rather  hail  thy  glorious  flight, 
And  trace  thy  journey  to  the  realms  of  day." 


382  OBSEQUIES    OF 


The  dirge,  li  Unveil  thy  bosom,  faithful  tomb,"  was  then  performed; 
and,  after  a  benediction  by  Rev.  Mr.  Shields,  the  large  congregation 
commenced  to  disperse. 

The  imposing  public  demonstration  necessarily  terminated  with  the 
dismissal  of  the  military  escort  and  the  civic  societies  at  the  church,  and 
the  subsequent  solemnities  were  in  some  degree  of  a  private  character. 
Yet  the  Joint  Committee  considered  that  their  appointment  included 
directions  to  assist  in  the  concluding  rites,  and  to  represent  those  by 
whom  they  were  appointed  even  in  conveying  the  remains  of  the  deceased 
to  the  family  vault.  Thither  also  went  the  pall-bearers  and  the  Arctic 
companions  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  numerous  citizens :  and  there,  with 
befitting  service  by  the  reverend  clergy,  the  body  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane 
was  laid  at  rest,  amid  the  manifestations  of  grief  and  respect  which 
have  distinguished  the  burial  of  few  men  of  his  years  in  any  country. 

In  reference  to  the  formation  of  the  funeral  cortege,  the  committee 
deem  it  proper  to  state  that  they  did  not  feel  it  incumbent  upon  them 
to  issue  invitations  to  any  particular  society  to  attend  and  participate  in 
the  ceremonies;  and  their  confidence  in  the  proper  feeling  of  their 
fellow-citizens  was  justified  in  the  numerous  notices  of  societies,  public 
institutions,  scientific,  literary,  and  philanthropic  associations,  and  other 
bodies,  of  their  intention  to  join  in  the  services,  and  an  expression  of 
desire  to  have  a  place  assigned  them  in  the  procession.  All  were  accepted; 
and,  though  some  notices  were  received  after  the  completion  and  publi 
cation  of  the  programme,  yet  it  is  believed  that  a  place  was  assigned  to 
all  those  who  desired  admittance  to  the  ranks. 

Of  the  distinguished  gentlemen  invited  to  act  as  pall-bearers,  all  not 
prevented  by  absence  or  illness  accepted;  and  the  terms  of  acceptance — 
or,  where  the  necessity  of  the  case  rendered  acceptance  impossible,  the 
expression  of  regrets — were  such  as  to  give  additional  proof  of  the  high 
estimation  in  which  Dr.  Kane  was  held,  and  of  the  conviction  of  duty 
to  make  public  demonstration  of  that  estimation. 

Only  two  persons  resident  beyond  the  limits  of  Pennsylvania  were 
invited  to  act  as  pall-bearers.  Those  were  Henry  Grinnell,  Esq.,  of 
New  York,  and  George  Peabody,  Esq.,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
resident  in  London,  but  now  in  this  country.  Both  these  gentlemen 
were  so  intimately  connected  with  the  Arctic  Expeditions  of  Dr.  Kane 
as  to  associate  their  names  inseparably  with  the  history  of  those  great 
enterprises.  It  was  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Peabody  had,  before  the 
arrangements  for  the  obsequies  were  made,  left  Washington  for  the 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  383 


Southern  part  of  the  Union,  and  did  not  even  receive  the  invitation  to  be 
present.  Mr.  Grinnell  came  from  New  York,  and  assisted  in  the  funeral 
services  of  one  whom  he  so  highly  valued. 

As  it  rarely  happens  that  such  civic  honors  are  paid  to  the  memory 
of  those  who  have  not  been  distinguished  by  lofty  political  places  or 
some  remarkable  achievement  in  war,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  add 
that  the  whole  manifestation  of  respect  by  the  corporation  and  citizens 
of  Philadelphia  to  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane  seems  to  be  remarkable 
from  its  expression  of  public  feeling,  which  presented  itself  in  a  form 
and  with  a  universality  that  demanded  an  extraordinary  demonstration, 
and  to  sanction  all  that  the  Joint  Committee  could  devise  and  execute 
under  existing  circumstances  j  and,  while  this  same  feeling  was  evident, 
and  its  utterance  more  remarkable,  at  Havana,  where  Dr.  Kane 
breathed  his  last, — at  New  Orleans,  where  his  remains  first  touched  the 
shores  of  our  country, — and  all  through  the  long  "  funeral  march"  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware, — it  was  most 
certainly  appropriate  that  here,  in  Philadelphia,  illustrated  by  his  achieve 
ments,  here,  where  his  science  and  humanity  had  added  new  dignity  to 
the  distinction  of  his  native  city,  his  memory  should  be  honored  by 
those  who  can  appreciate  the  excellence  which  he  manifested,  and  who, 
though  they  mourn  the  loss  to  science  and  philanthropy  which  his  early 
death  has  caused,  can  comprehend  the  merits  of  one  who  accomplished 
the  work  of  ages  in  what  was  a  short  life  in  all  respects  save  its  useful 
ness.  No  city  in  the  Union  has  a  richer  treasury  in  the  fame  of  its  sons 
than  Philadelphia.  In  literature,  in  science,  in  the  arts,  in  the  achieve 
ments  of  war,  in  the  beautiful  works  of  peace,  in  enlarged  provision  for 
the  destitute,  and  in  general  philanthropy,  the  examples  of  Philadel- 
phians  are  beautiful  precedents  of  all  that  is  great  in  plan  and  ennobling 
in  execution  j  and  on  the  roll  of  their  civic  fame  she  now  records  the 
name  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  and  the  whole  civilized  world  attests  the 
correctness  of  the  appreciation  and  does  homage  to  the  merits  that 
secured  the  record.  At  home  the  influence  of  the  good  example  of  those 
who  have  preceded  us  has  been  always  operative  for  good :  henceforth 
there  will  be  an  additional  incitement  to  enterprise  and  philanthropy 
in  the  noble  daring  and  self-sacrificing  philanthropy  of  Dr.  Kane;  and 
Philadelphians  abroad  will  have  a  new  distinction  in  their  civic  rela 
tions  with  one  whose  actions  have  cast  so  much  lustre  on  generous  enter 
prise,  and  so  magnified  the  value  of  practical  benevolence. 

Nor  can  the  committee  omit  to  remark  that  the  generous  courage  and 
the  unfailing  urbanity  of  Dr.  Kane  awakened,  even  in  the  hearts  of  the 


384  OBSEQUIES   OF 


uncivilized  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  a  sense  of  lofty  regard  for 
the  possession  and  practice  of  those  qualities  j  so  that,  wherever  Provi 
dence  allowed  him  to  gratify  his  desire  for  research,  he  excited  feelings 
and  left  impressions  that  will  keep  alive  profound  admiration  for  his 
talents  and  secure  ineffaceable  gratitude  for  his  kindness. 

While  it  is  understood  that  the  same  feeling  of  civic  pride  animated 
all  who  shared  in  the  solemnities  of  the  occasion,  it  is  considered  an  act 
of  justice  to  express  gratitude  to  the  chief-marshal,  who  assisted  the 
committee  in  the  arrangement  of  the  plan  of  the  procession,  and  who  so 
successfully  carried  out  the  whole  arrangement ;  while  thanks  are  also 
due  to  his  aids  and  assistants,  who  secured  the  most  perfect  fulfilment  of 
his  and  the  committee's  arrangement  in  the  details  submitted  to  their 
care. 

The  procession  derived  much  of  its  solemnity  from  the  striking  display 
of  military,  who,  under  Brigadier-General  George  Cadwallader,  assisted 
as  escort.  The  commanding  officer  was  prompt  in  complying  with  the 
wishes  of  the  committee;  and  the  whole  arrangement  was  a  beautiful  and 
meritorious  tribute  of  respect  by  the  citizen-soldiery  to  the  citizen  of 
arms  and  arts  and  sciences  and  generous  impulses. 

The  company  of  Washington  Grays,  in  addition  to  the  escort-duties, 
earned  the  gratitude  of  the  committee  and  of  the  public  by  the  gentle 
manly  delicacy  with  which  they  discharged  the  duties  of  guard  of  honor 
to  the  body  as  it  lay  in  state  in  the  Hall  of  Independence.  Where  all 
the  citizens  seemed  concerned  to  have  the  demonstration  such  as  would 
be  expressive  of  the  deepest  grief  at  the  loss  deplored  and  the  most 
profound  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  honored  dead,  it  would  seem 
unnecessary  to  make  especial  reference  to  the  particular  classes  who 
joined  in  the  manifestation  of  the  day  j  but  it  is  deemed  due  to  the 
proper  spirit  of  our  citizens  to  say  that  the  great  mercantile  interests  of 
the  city  were  represented  not  only  by  those  who  were  invited  to  take 
some  special  part  in  the  proceedings,  but  by  a  great  body  of  merchants 
from  the  Corn  Exchange,  who  did  honor  to  their  pursuits  by  the  spirit 
and  liberality  with  which  they  seconded  the  efforts  of  the  Committee, 
and  the  numbers  by  which  they  were  represented  in  the  procession. 
Dr.  Kane  was  not,  in  any  of  his  various  professional  relations,  directly 
connected  with  the  commercial  calling ;  but  he  was  a  man  of  enterprise, 
of  science,  of  generous  daring  on  the  seas ;  he  was  a  philanthropist ;  he 
was  a  Philadelphian ;  and  the  Association  of  the  Corn  Exchange  showed 
its  power  to  appreciate  the  honor  which  the  fame  of  the  deceased  threw 
upon  all  professional  pursuits,  and  they  deserve  the  special  thanks  of  the 


DR.   ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  385 


committee  for  manifesting  their  generous  sympathies  for  one  who,  as  a 
Philadelphian,  has  thrown  lustre  upon  nautical  enterprise  and  invested 
the  name  and  character  of  man  with  new  and  more  beautiful  attri 
butes. 

Claiming  special  proprietorship  in  the  fame  of  Dr.  Kane,  the  citizens 
of  Philadelphia  must  feel  that  such  honors  as  were  in  New  Orleans,  in 
Louisville,  Cincinnati,  Columbus,  Baltimore,  and  other  places,  bestowed 
upon  the  remains  of  our  townsman,  devolved  upon  them  the  duty  at 
least  of  public  acknowledgment;  and,  while  they  know  how  spontaneous 
were  these  tokens  of  respect,  and  how  specially  paid  to  and  deserved  by 
the  dead,  the  committee  feel  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  express,  in  the 
name  of  those  whom  they  represent,  a  profound  gratitude  for  the  striking 
manner  in  which  the  generous  enthusiasm  of  their  fellow-citizens  at  a 
distance  found  expression. 

In  the  simple  report  of  the  proceedings  of  a  committee,  even  on  an 
occasion  of  such  general  interest,  it  is  not  necessary  to  incorporate  any 
studied  eulogy  of  him  who  was  the  object  of  those  honors  for  the 
arrangement  of  which  the  committee  was  appointed.  Everywhere  the 
merits  of  Dr.  Kane  are  acknowledged ;  everywhere  his  fame  is  regarded 
as  a  part  of  the  distinction  of  this  age;  and  the  inspiration  of  the  poet, 
the  power  of  the  pen  and  the  press,  and  the  voice  of  the  public  speaker, 
have  been  exercised  to  give  utterance  to  those  sentiments  of  admiration 
which  all  feel,  and  to  which  all  respond  when  thus  uttered.  But,  had  such 
been  a  duty  devolved  upon  the  committee,  that  duty  could  not  have  been 
more  gratifyingly  discharged  than  it  was  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shields ;  and,  to 
supply  the  deficiency  of  their  own  expressions,  the  committee  adopt  the 
language  of  that  divine,  and  have  incorporated  into  their  statement  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  day  that  most  interesting  part  which,  in  the  grandeur 
of  simplicity,  gave  utterance  to  a  well-prepared  eulogy,  and  which  held 
up  for  admiration  the  strong  characteristics  of  the  eulogized,  and  dis 
played  those  characteristics  so  blended  with  the  beautiful  and  the  good 
as  to  exhibit  "  a  combination  and  a  form  indeed  that  gave  the  world 
assurance  of  a  man." 

In  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  the  proceedings  which  marked  the 
whole  progress  of  the  remains  of  Dr.  Kane,  from  his  death-bed  to  the 
sepulchre,  were  themselves  one  of  the  most  distinguished  eulogies  that 
a  people 'has  ever  pronounced  upon  one  who  claimed  no  distinction  as  a 
leader  of  armies  or  as  a  director  in  statemanship ;  and  the  single  record 
of  the  outburst  of  public  feeling,  and  the  demonstration  of  general 
regard  that  had  place  in  this  country  and  are  still  to  be  noticed,  will  be 

25 


386  OBSEQUIES   OF 


the  proudest  monument  that  can  be  raised  to  the  lofty  and  the  gentle 
qualities,  the  enterprise,  the  philanthropy,  the  science,  and  the  friend 
ship,  of  Elisha  Kent  Kane. 

But  the  committee  are  reminded  of  a  subject  submitted  to  one  part 
of  their  body  by  the  public  meeting  by  which  the  committee  from  the 
citizens  was  appointed,  viz. :  the  collection  of  funds  to  erect  a  monu 
ment,  at  some  appropriate  place,  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane, — not  simply 
to  do  him  honor,  but  rather  to  do  our  community  the  justice  to  show 
that  it  could  appreciate  the  noble  character  of  their  townsman ;  and, 
while  the  nation  may  possibly  boast  of  the  merits  of  the  honored  dead, 
our  own  citizens  may  proudly  point  to  the  recorded  proof  that  he  was 
of  their  own  number. 

It  is  not  the  opinion  of  the  committee  that  the  corporation  of  the 
city  should  be  asked  to  assist  in  the  erection  of  the  proposed  monument. 
The  sum  that  would  be  worthy  of  the  giver  in  such  a  case  would  deprive 
citizens  of  the  opportunity  of  expressing  their  admiration  of  the  cha 
racter  of  the  honored  dead,  and  make  the  monument  itself  an  emblem 
of  civic  pride  rather  than  a  token  of  popular  admiration.  The  monu 
ment,  if  erected,  must  be  the  exponent  of  general  sentiment  individually 
expressed.  And  the  young  aspirant  for  fame  and  honor  must  learn,  from 
that  column,  that  greatness  is  the  result  of  noble  enterprise  and  self- 
abnegation,  and  that  the  virtues  which  secure  permanent  distinction 
and  unfading  honor  are  those  that  appeal  to  the  affections  of  the  people, 
and  that  no  monument  is  so  honorable  or  so  enduring  as  that  which 
records  the  triumphs  of  science  by  the  aid  of  benevolence. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  instructions  of  the  solemnities  and  public  proceed 
ings  which  are  here  noticed,  and  the  part  most  useful  to  the  young  and 
gratifying  to  all,  that  public  sentiment  in  our  country  is  most  healthful, 
and  that  people  of  all  pursuits  and  conditions  can  appreciate  the  merit 
that  rests  on  the  achievements  of  peace  and  the  sacrifices  to  duty ;  and 
that  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war,  or  the  distinction  of  lofty  political 
station,  appealing  as  they  do  to  the  patriotic  pride  of  the  people,  are  not 
the  only  claims  to  public  applause.  The  young,  by  such  demonstrations 
as  have  been  made  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Kane,  see  that  there  is  a  sub 
stantial  worth  in  virtue  and  generous  enterprise,  and  that  the  avenues 
to  great  distinction  and  to  general  gratitude  are  open  to  the  man  who 
can  divest  himself  of  calculations  of  selfish  gain,  and  exercise  the 
noblest  sympathies  of  his  nature  in  acts  of  public  benefit,  which  call  for 
the  sacrifice  of  personal  ease  and  safety  .to  the  comfort  and  convenience 
of  others.  And  it  is  as  much  upon  the  character  of  the  generous  self- 


DR.   ELISHA   KENT    KANE.  387 


sacrificing  philanthropy  as  upon  that  of  a  daring  and  successful  contribu 
tor  to  science,  that  Dr.  Kane  has  built  his  lofty  reputation. 

It  is  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  great  fame  of  Dr.  Kane,  that 
he  had  achieved  the  position  which  he  must  ever  occupy  in  history,  at 
an  age  when,  in  general,  men  are  but  undergoing  the  discipline  which 
prepares  them  for  the  enterprise  and  endurance  necessary  to  great 
success.  And  though  he  undoubtedly  fell  a  sacrifice  to  his  generous 
enterprise,  and  to  his  noble  efforts  to  mitigate  for  others  the  conse 
quences  of  perils  and  deprivations  to  which  he  and  his  companions 
were  necessarily  exposed,  and  suffered  immensely  from  the  voluntary 
assumption  to  himself  of  burdens  that  might  have  appropriately  been 
left  to  others,  yet  it  is  not  found  that  such  manifest  consequences  led 
him  to  regret  the  sacrifice.  On  the  contrary,  his  history  exhibits  not  a 
single  page  of  selfish  thought  or  action,  from  the  moment  he  entered 
upon  the  career  which  has  given  him  the  praise,  sympathy,  and  grati 
tude  of  a  world,  to  the  hour  when,  afar  from  home,  yet  amidst  cherished 
relatives  and  friends,  he  calmly  yielded  up  all  earthly  ties,  with  a  Chris 
tian's  confidence  and  submission  to  his  Creator's  will.  It  is  perfectly 
manifest  that  in  all  his  undertakings,  his  privations  and  perils,  and  their 
obvious  effect  upon  his  system,  he  acted  upon  the  ennobling  sentiment 
that  "  the  duties  of  life  are  greater  than  life." 


The  publishers  would  express  their  obligation  to  the  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Chandler 
for  his  admirable  taste  and  skill  in  the  preparation  of  the  foregoing  account  of 
the  obsequies  of  Dr.  Kane.  The  various  addresses,  discourses,  &c,  have  since 
been  carefully  revised  and  corrected  by  their  authors. 

CHILDS  &  PETERSON. 


EULOGY 


ON 

DR.  ELISHA  KBIT  KANE, 

PRONOUNCED    BY 

BRO.  E.  W.  AOT)KEWS, 

BEFORE  THE  GRAND  LODGE  OF  THE  ANCIENT  AND  HONORABLE  FRATERNITY  OF 
FREE  AND  ACCEPTED  MASONS  IN  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK, 

JUNE  5,  1857; 

TOGETHER   WITH   THE 


BY  THE  M.  W.  GEAND  1ASTEK, 

AND  LETTERS  RECEIVED  ON  THE  OCCASION  PROM 

EDWARD  EVERETT..  WASHINGTON  IRVING,  GENERAL  WOOL,  JUDGE  KANE, 
COMMODORES  PERRY,  STEWART,  AND  READ, 

AND  MANY  OTHER  DISTINGUISHED  GENTLEMEN  IN  VARIOUS  PARTS 
OF  THE  UNION. 


OFFICE  OF  THE  GRAND  SECRETARY  OF  THE  GRAND  LODGE 
OF  FREE  AND  ACCEPTED  MASONS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK. 

NEW  YORK,  June  22,  1857. 

DEAR  SIR  AND  BROTHER  : — At  the  Annual  Communication  of  the  M.W.  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  State  of  New  York,  held  in  this  city  on  the  6th  of  June,  A.L.  5857, 
the  following  resolution  was  adopted : — 

"Whereas,  the  members  of  the  M.W.  Grand  Lodge  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
in  Annual  Communication  assembled,  having  listened  to  the  eulogy,  pronounced 
on  the  evening  of  the  5th  instant,  to  the  memory  of  our  distinguished  and  beloved 
brother  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane,  do  desire  to  express  to  our  worthy  and  esteemed  brother 
E.  W.  Andrews  their  high  pleasure  and  satisfaction  with  the  ability  and  fidelity 
with  which  he  has  discharged  the  duty  imposed  upon  him :  therefore, 

"Resolved;  That  our  brother  E.  W.  Andrews  be  requested  to  place  his  manu 
script  in  the  hands  of  our  R.W.  Deputy  Grand  Master  and  R.W.  Grand  Secretary, 
to  be  published  under  their  supervision,  for  distribution  among  the  members  of 
the  Grand  Lodge." 

To  enable  us  to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  Grand  Lodge,  will  you  be  kind 
enough  to  furnish  us  with  a  copy  of  said  eulogy  ? 

Very  truly  and  fraternally,  yours, 

JAMES  M.  AUSTIN, 
To  Hon.  E.  W.  ANDREWS.  Grand  Secretary. 


NEW  YORK,  June  24,  1857. 
R.W.  JAMES  M.  AUSTIN,  Grand  Secretary. 

DEAR  SIR  AND  BROTHER  : — Your  letter  of  the  22d  instant,  enclosing  a  copy 
of  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  New  York  Grand  Lodge  on  the  6th  of  June  last, 
was  duly  received,  and  is  gratefully  acknowledged. 

In  accordance  with  the  wish  embodied  in  the  resolution,  I  herewith  send  you 
my  manuscript  and  place  it  at  your  disposal. 

Truly  and  fraternally,  yours, 

E.  W.  ANDREWS. 


390 


INTRODUCTION. 


WHEN  the  painful  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Kane  was  received 
in  the  United  States,  the  brethren  of  Arcana  Lodge,  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  immediately  adopted  measures  to  pay  suitable  public  honors  to 
the  memory  of  the  illustrious  deceased,  as  a  worthy  brother  of  the  Fra 
ternity  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  and  an  honorary  member  of  that 
Lodge,  by  adopting  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions : — 

Whereas,  In  the  removal  of  Bro.  Kane  from  our  midst  we  recognise  a  dispensa 
tion  of  the  Great  Architect  of  the  Universe,  to  which  we  bow  in  humble  submis 
sion,  while  as  mortal  beings  we  mourn  the  loss  to  mankind  of  so  much  worth 
beyond  that  with  which  Supreme  Wisdom  has  endowed  a  large  majority  of  His 
earthly  intelligences ;  and 

Whereas,  In  his  decease  we  are  sensible  of  the  loss  of  a  true  and  valued 
Brother ;  viewing  it  as  an  event  of  no  ordinary  sorrow,  not  to  us  alone  as  a  Fra 
ternity,  but  to  the  country  in  whose  service  his  life  has  been  sacrificed,  after  a 
short  but  brilliant  career,  to  place  a  new  and  beautiful  chaplet  on  her  brow,  and 
to  the  world,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  in  science,  bravery, 
and  worth,  having  inscribed  his  name  on  the  great  scroll  of  time,  to  be  read  and 
respected  by  future  generations ;  and 

Whereas,  His  devotion  to  the  Fraternity  and  to  humanity  was  so  nobly 
exhibited  in  his  untiring  efforts  to  rescue  a  lost  brother,  in  the  person  of  Sir 
John  Franklin,  and  in  planting,  with  the  American  flag,  Masonic  emblems  to 
arrest  the  attention  of  travellers  and  voyagers  in  the  desolate  region  of  eternal 
ice :  Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  a  Lodge  of  Sorrow  be  holden,  at  such  time  and  place  as  may  be 
hereafter  designated,  in  honor  of  our  cherished  and  lamented  brother,  Dr.  Elisha 
K.  Kane. 

Upon  subsequent  consultation,  however,  with  the  officers  of  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  State,  it  was  adjudged  proper  that  this  body,  at  its  Annual 
Communication,  to  be  held  in  June,  should  take  the  lead  in  giving 
expression  to  the  profound  grief  of  the  brotherhood  at  the  early  death 

391 


392  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


of  one  of  its  most  distinguished  members,  and  their  respect  and  affection 
for  his  memory;   and  the  following-named  brethren  were  appointed  a 

COMMITTEE    OF   ARRANGEMENTS. 

R.  W.  ROBT.  MACOY,  W.  CHAS.  S.  WESTCOTT, 
"      JAMES  M.  AUSTIN,  "    THOMAS  S.  SOMMERS, 

"      CHAS.  L.  CHURCH,  «    THOMAS  E.  GARSON, 

"      JOHN  W.  SIMONS,  "    NEHEMIAH  PECK, 

W.     WM.  GURNEY,  «    ARTHUR  BOYCE, 

"      CHAS.  A.  PECK,  "    GEO.  C.  WEBSTER, 

"      A.  P.  MORIARTY,  "    J.  B.  Y.  SOMMERS, 

"      HENRY.  W.  TURNER,  "    ANDRES  CASSARD, 
"      CHAS.  F.  NEWTON,  "    JAMES  B.  TAYLOR, 

Bro.  SIDNEY  KOPMAN. 

The  evening  of  the  5th  of  June  was  designated  as  the  time  when 
some  appropriate  public  demonstration  should  be  made,  and  the  church 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chapin,  on  Broadway,  was  selected  as  the  place.  Bro. 
E.  W.  Andrews,  of  New  York,  was  invited  to  pronounce  the  eulogy  on 
the  occasion,  which  invitation  he  accepted.  The  music  was  placed 
under  the  direction  of  Bro.  James  B.  Taylor;  and  other  arrangements 
were  made  which  the  dignity  and  solemnity  of  the  occasion  demanded. 
When  the  appointed  evening  arrived,  a  large  and  most  respectable  audi 
ence  assembled  :  the  church  was  draped  in  mourning  ;  a  fine  bust  of  Dr. 
Kane  was  placed  prominently  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  resting  on  a  pedestal 
draped  with  the  tattered  flag  of  the  two  Arctic  Expeditions,  and  in  the 
rear  of  it  was  hung  a  beautiful  banner,  emblazoned  with  symbols  of  Free 
Masonry.  The  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental,  was  in  harmony 
with  the  mournfulness  of  the  scene,  and  deepened  the  solemn  impression 
it  produced.  The  officers  and  members  of  the  Grand  Lodge  appeared 
in  full  regalia  and  wearing  badges  of  mourning.  As  in  sad  procession 
they  entered  the  centre-aisle  of  the  spacious  church,  and  with  slow  and 
measured  step  passed  up  beneath  its  lofty  arches  toward  the  sacred  altar, 
while  the  deep-toned  organ  pealed  forth  its  solemn  notes,  and  the  voices 
of  the  choir,  in  the  mournful  dirge,  seemed  the  breathings  of  bereaved 
hearts,  the  scene  was  deeply  impressive.  Every  heart  seemed  touched 
with  the  spirit  of  sadness.  When  the  music  ceased,  amidst  the  profound 
stillness  that  prevailed  through  the  large  and  thoughtful  assembly,  the 
Grand  Chaplain,  R.  W.  and  Rev.  R.  L.  Schoonrnaker,  arose,  and  in  a 
most  fervent  and  touching  prayer  addressed  the  Throne  of  Grace.  The 
following 


DK.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  N      393 


ODE, 

WRITTEN   BY   BRO.  JAMES   HERRING,  WAS   THEN 
SUNG   BY    MRS.  SPROSTON,  MISS   GEER,  AND    MESSRS.  TAYLOR   AND  WILLIAMS. 

Here  let  the  sacred  rites  decreed 

In  honor  of  departed  friends 
With  solemn  order  now  proceed, 

While  living  faith  with  sorrow  blends. 

Now  let  the  hymn,  the  humble  prayer, 

From  hearts  sincere  ascend  on  high, 
And  mystic  evergreen  declare 

The  hope  within  us  cannot  die. 

The  mortal  frame  may  be  conceal'd 

Within  the  narrow  house  of  gloom, 
But  GOD  in  mercy  has  reveal'd 

Immortal  life  beyond  the  tomb. 

The  friends  we  mourn  we  still  may  love: 

Then  let  our  aspirations  rise 
To  that  bright  spirit-world  above 

Where  virtue  lives,  love  never  dies. 

The  M.  W.  G-rand  Master,  John  L.  Lewis,  Jr.,  then  briefly  addressed 
the  audience  upon  the  melancholy  nature  of  the  occasion  which  had 
brought  them  together. 

ADDRESS. 

BRETHREN  OF  THE  MASONIC  FRATERNITY, 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — 

A  few  hours  since  I  was  first  informed,  by  reading  the  printed  pro 
gramme,  that  it  was  announced  that  I  was  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
exercises  of  this  evening.  My  Masonic  brethren  need  not  be  told  that 
my  engagements  elsewhere,  till  within  the  last  hour,  have  prevented  me 
from  making  any  preparation,  or  reflecting  upon  the  subject-matter  of 
what  I  should  here  speak.  But  this  consideration  did  not — could  not — 
restrain  me  from  being  present  and  contributing  my  humble  aid  in  this 
public  testimonial  to  the  services  and  worth  of  him  who  is  wrapped  in 
the  silent  slumber  that  knows  no  waking,  in  a  distant  city.  I  might 
indeed  catch  inspiration  from  the  scene  presented  before  and  around 
me.  This  large  and  attentive  assemblage,  intent  on  doing  homage  to 
departed  genius,  the  fervid  and  thrilling  petition  to  the  Throne  of 
Grace,  just  offered,  the  rich  harmony  pealing  from  yonder  skilled  choir, 
all  awaken  deep  emotions ;  but  I  will  not  attempt  to  give  them  utterance. 


394  MASONIC   OBSEQUIES   OF 


My  simple  duty  will  best  be  discharged  by  a  brief  allusion  to  the  reasons 
that  have  brought  us  together. 

This  respectable  and  intelligent  auditory  scarcely  require  to  be 
reminded  of  the  cause  of  this  assemblage.  These  emblems  of  Masonry, 
these  drooping  flags,  these  mute  yet  speaking  evidences  of  sorrow, 
remind  us  that  we  are  in  the  house  of  mourning.  The  Grand  Lodge 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  now  assembled  in  Annual  Communication, 
have  resolved  to  set  apart  a  portion  of  their  time  to  do  public  honor  to 
the  name  and  memory. of  Dr.  Elisha  K.  Kane,  as  not  only  indicative 
of  their  own  feelings,  but  as  due  to  his  character.  And  why 
should  we  thus  honor  his  name  and  memory?  He  was  not  a  citizen  of 
our  State,  nor  a  regular  member  of  any  Lodge  under  this  jurisdiction ; 
and  we  have  apparently  only  the  feelings  of  sorrow  entertained  in 
common  by  the  entire  Craft,  that  a  distinguished  and  beloved  brother 
of  our  world-wide  Fraternity  has  passed  away.  It  would  be  sufficient 
to  base  our  action  alone  upon  this.  While  we  claim  that  a  connection 
with  the  Masonic  Fraternity  reflects  credit  upon  each  individual  member, 
it  frequently  occurs  that  the  character  of  its  distinguished  votaries  also 
reflects  a  brighter  renown  upon  our  institution.  Their  fame  becomes 
our  fame ;  their  honor  is  our  honor,  their  renown  our  renown ;  and  in 
this  instance  we  feel  that  the  achievements  of  Kane  have  shed  a  halo 
of  glory  around  the  Masonic  brotherhood  "  bright  as  the  mystic  aurora 
of  the  clime  he  braved/'  The  distinguished  and  eloquent  brother  from 
whose  glowing  lips  we  are  to  hear  a  truthful  eulogy  upon  the  life  and 
character  of  Dr.  Kane  will  tell  how  he  loved  our  institution;  how  its 
lessons  cheered  the  rigor  and  gloom  of  Polar  night;  and  how,  erecting 
his  country's  standard  as  at  once  a  shield  and  a  signal,  he  spread  to  the 
blast  beneath  it  a  flag  bearing  the  peculiar  devices  of  the  Craft,  that  it 
might  perchance  catch  the  eye  of  some  wanderer  in  that  frozen  clime 
and  urge  him  by  its  mute  appeal  to  more  vigorous  exertions  to  cheer  and 
save.  It  is  proper  that  I  should  remind  you  (as  I  have  once  already 
done  at  the  opening  of  the  Annual  Communication)  that  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  New  York  thus  publicly  pays  tribute  to  his  merits  and  genius 
because  he  was  an  honorary  member  of  one  of  the  Lodges  under  its 
jurisdiction,  (Arcana  Lodge,)  and  because  his  last  spoken  farewell, 
previous  to  his  departure  upon  his  latest  perilous  expedition,  was  to  this 
Grand  Lodge,  assembled  in  special  communication  to  exchange  parting 
salutations  and  to  cheer  him  onward  in  his  hazardous  enterprise  of 
seeking  for  an  eminent  lost  brother  in  the  regions  of  perpetual  wintry 
desolation. 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  395 


It  is  as  much  the  province  of  our  ancient  Fraternity  to  gather  around 
the  open  grave  and  silent  tomb  of  a  brother  as  it  is  to  meet  upon  festal 
or  ceremonial  occasions,  where  mutual  smiles  and  innocent  festivity 
denote  the  joyousness  of  the  heart.  We  gather  in  our  Lodges  of 
Sorrow  when  the  loved  and  honored  have  departed  and  sit  in  the 
chambers  of  death,  to  give  expression  to  the  emotions  which  stir  our 
souls ;  and  ours  is  the  mournful  duty  of  strewing  the  grave  of  a  brother 
with  the  weeping  acacia,  as  a  token  that,  while  we  witness  the  mortality 
of  the  body,  we  also  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  lingering 
around  the  little  mound  of  earth  which  crowns  his  last  resting-place, 
while  we  speak  of  his  virtues  and  our  own  bereavement.  Ours  is  the 
mournful  task  of  weaving  chaplets  for  the  sepulchre  as  well  as  garlands 
for  the  living  brow,  and  of  planting  the  shady  cypress  in  the  cemetery 
of  the  silent  dead.  We  have  thus  met,  as  in  a  Lodge  of  Sorrow,  to 
night;  and,  while  our  spirits  kindle  at  the  recollection  of  what  our  dis 
tinguished  brother  has  done  for  the  cause  of  our  common  humanity  and 
for  the  fresh  honors  he  has  shed  upon  our  gallant  navy,  we  mourn  at 
the  remembrance  that  he  has  passed  away  from  earth  forever,  but  yet  in 
the  fulness  of  his  fame  and  the  brightness  of  his  early  renown. 

We  do  not  mourn  alone.  Listen  to  what  his  former  distinguished 
and  gallant  commander,  Commodore  Perry,  that  brave  and  renowned 
veteran,  Commodore  Stewart,  the  enlightened  Maury,  and  others  of 
high  meritorious  character,  say  of  their  lamented  brother-officer.  Nor 
alone  does  the  voice  of  sorrow  come  up  from  the  surges  of  the  sounding 
sea.  The  gallant  soldiery  of  the  country  delight  to  honor  skill  and 
daring,  whether  by  sea  or  land.  Hear  the  language  of  the  distinguished 
and  renowned  second  in  command  of  the  United  States  army,  Major- 
General  Wool.  Hear  also  the  voices  of  our  statesmen  and  men  of  litera 
ture, — the  accomplished  Everett,  Irving,  Willis,  Halleck,  Lester,  and  a 
host  of  other  celebrities,  from  the  pulpit,  the  bar,  and  the  mystic  circle. 

The  Grand  Master  then  read  a  number  of  letters  which  had  been 
received  in  response  to  the  following  invitation  :— 

OFFICE  OF  THE  GRAND  LODGE  OF 
FREE  AND  ACCEPTED  MASONS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK, 

NEW  YORK,  June  1,  1857. 
DEAR  SIR  : — The  fraternity  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  desirous  of  testifying  their  high  appreciation  of  the  lamented  and  distin 
guished  brother  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  have  made  arrangements  for  appropriate 
public  honors  to  his  memory.  The  ceremonies  to  take  place  on  Friday  evening, 
June  5,  at  the  church  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  E.  H.  Chapin,  in  Broadway,  at  half-past 
seven  o'clock. 


396  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


Eulogium  by  the  Hon.  Bro.  E.  W.  Andrews,  and  other  appropriate  exercises. 
You  are  respectfully  invited  to  attend  and  join  in  this  tribute  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  the  departed. 

CHAS.  A.  PECK, 

ROBT.  MACOY,       ^  Committee  on  Invitation. 

SIDNEY  KOPMAN, 


OK,   ~\ 

[AN,  ) 


LETTERS. 

n 
(From  CHARLES  STEWART,  Senior  Commodore,  United  States  Navy.) 

PHILADELPHIA  NAVY-YARD,  June  3,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  the  honor  to  receive  your  kind  invitation  of  the  1st 
instant,  in  behalf  of  the  Honorable  the  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  to  attend  in  the  contemplated  public  honors  to  the  memory  of  the 
lamented  and  distinguished  brother  Dr.  Elisha  K.  Kane. 

Could  I  have  been  spared  from  the  duties  of  this  post,  without  public  incon 
venience,  on  the  5th  instant,  it  would  have  afforded  me  the  most  grateful  feelings 
to  have  united  with  our  brethren  of  the  State  of  New  York  by  my  attendance  on 
the  occasion  of  their  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  one  so  honorably  dis 
tinguished  and  self-sacrificed  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  family. 

Accept,  gentlemen,  with  the  assurance  of  my  regret,  from  inability  on  this 
occasion,  to  comply  with  your  interesting  wishes,  that  I  have  the  honor  to  remain, 
Most  respectfully, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

To  Brothers  CHARLES  STEWART. 

CHAS.  A.  PECK,    "\ 

ROBERT  MACOY,    I  Committee  on  Invitation. 
SIDNEY  KOPMAN,  J 

(From  COMMODORE  PERRY,  United  States  Navy.) 

38  WEST  THIRTY-SECOND  STREET,  NEW  YORK,  June  3,  1857. 
GENTLEMEN  : — I  regret  exceedingly  that  a  protracted  illness,  which  has  confined 
me  to  my  house  for  several  weeks,  will  deprive  me  of  the  gratification  of  joining 
you  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  our  departed  brother,  "  the  lamented  and 
distinguished"  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane. 

Be  assured,  gentlemen,  of  my  warmest  sympathies  being  with  you  on  the 
occasion  of  your  melancholy  ceremonies. 

Most  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

M.  C.  PERRY. 

(From  COMMODORE  READ,  United  States  Navy.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  June  3,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  polite  invitation  received 
from  you  to-day  to  attend  and  join  in  a  ceremony  the  object  of  which  is  to 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  397 


bestow  appropriate  honors  on  the  memory   of  the  lamented   Dr.   Elisha   K. 
Kane. 

Allow  me  to  say  that  I  feel  highly  flattered  by  this  mark  of  attention,  and  that 
I  would  with  much  pleasure  attend  and  join  in  the  tribute  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  an  old  shipmate,  were  it  not  at  present  out  of  my  power  to  do  so. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  READ. 


(From  LIEUTENANT  MAURY,  United  States  Navy.) 

OBSERVATORY,  WASHINGTON,  June  3,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — It  will  not,  I  regret  to  say,  be  in  my  power  to  participate  with 
you  in  the  melancholy  satisfaction  of  rendering  homage  to  the  merits  of  our 
illustrious  fellow-countryman,  the  late  Dr.  Kane. 

Did  not  occupations  and  engagements  which  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  set  aside 
prevent,  I  would  surely  be  with  you  on  Friday  evening. 

Respectfully,  &c., 

M.  F.  MAURY. 


(From  MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  E.  WOOL,  United  States  Army.) 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  EAST,  | 
TROY,  N.Y.,  June  3,  1857.      ) 

GENTLEMEN: — I  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  invitation  of  the  1st  instant  to 
join  in  the  ceremonies  intended  as  a  testimony  of  the  high  appreciation  enter 
tained  by  the  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  of  the  State  of  New  York  for  their 
lamented  and  distinguished  brother,  Dr.  Elisha  K.  Kane,  to  take  place  on 
Friday  evening,  June  5. 

I  deeply  regret  that  my  official  duties  will  not  permit  me  to  avail  myself  of  the 
opportunity  of  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  your  brother,  who  was  no  less  dis 
tinguished  than  he  rendered  great  and  important  services  to  his  country. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  E.  WOOL,  U.  S.  Army. 


(From  HON.  JUDGE  KANE,  P.  M.,  father  of  DR.  KANE.) 

PHILADELPHIA,  6th  June,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — My  absence  from  home  when  your  note  of  invitation  arrived 
prevented  my  receiving  it  till  this  morning ;  but  I  cannot  omit  to  thank  you  for 
it,  and  to  say  how  deeply  I  have  been  moved  by  the  justly  fraternal  feeling  which 
it  represents.  I  believe  I  can  speak  of  Dr.  Kane  as  he  was,  for  I  knew  him  in 
the  relations  that  determine  the  judgment  as  well  as  in  those  that  affect  the  heart. 
I  cannot  suspect  myself  of  a  father's  partiality  when  I  say  that  our  order  never 
had  a  brighter  representative, — that  there  was  never  a  better  son  or  brother,  a 
truer  friend,  a  purer  man,  or  a  more  expanded  and  self-sacrificing  philanthropist. 


398  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


That  his  memory  is  honored  by  those  who  can  emulate  his  virtues,  and  by  that 
brotherhood  especially  which  adopts  them  as  its  symbols,  gives  assurance  that  he 
did  not  live  or  die  in  vain.  With  grateful  respect, 

I  am,  gentlemen, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
J.  K.  KANE. 

(From  C.  EDWARDS  LESTER,  ESQ.) 

SPENCERTOWN,  COLUMBIA  COUNTY,  NEW  YORK,  June  4,  1857. 
GENTLEMEN  AND  BROTHERS  : — I  thank  you  for  remembering  me  in  connection 
with  the  honors  you  are  to  show  to  the  memory  and  achievements  of  our  beloved 
and  heroic  brother,  Dr.  Kane.     I  shall  be  with  you  if  I  can. 

No  more  befitting  or  touching  occasion  could  occur  to  call  out  our  friendship 
or  our  grief.  Thousands  knew  him  as  a  friend:  the  uncounted  hosts  of  the 
Masonic  Fraternity  knew  him  as  a  brother.  His  contributions  to  science  laid  the 
whole  world  under  obligation  ;  his  writings  embellish  literature  ;  while  his  whole 
life  is  radiant  with  the  divine  spirit  of  humanity.  We  should  feel  a  new  glow  of 
gratitude  and  pleasure  as  we  commemorate  his  virtues.  He  was  a  cherished 
member  of  a  brotherhood  on  which  the  sun  and  the  stars  never  go  down  ;  and 
from  the  genial  air  of  our  lodge-rooms  and  firesides  he  carried  our  banner  of 
peace  to  the  frozen  children  of  the  Pole.  Such  are  the  men  who  have  transmitted 
the  torch  of  light  from  age  to  age. 

Most  faithfully,  yours, 

C.  EDWARDS  LESTER. 


(From  HON.  EDWARD  EVERETT,  Mass.) 

,HI         MEDFORD,  MASS.,  June  4,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — Your  letter  of  the  l*t  has  been  forwarded  to  me  at  this  place, 
jnviting  me  to  attend  the  commemoration-ceremonies  in  honor  of  the  late  lamented 
Dr.  Kane,  on  the  evening  of  the  5th,  under  the  auspices  of  the  "  Free  and 
Accepted  Masons  of  the  State  of  New  York."  I  much  regret  that  it  is  not  in  my 
power  to  be  present  on  the  interesting  occasion. 

I  remain,  gentlemen,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDWARD  EVERETT. 

(From  WASHINGTON  IRVING,  ESQ.) 

SUNNYSIDE,  June  5,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — Your  obliging  invitation  did  not  reach  me  until  last  evening.     I 
regret  to  say  that  engagements  which  detain  me  in  the  country  will  prevent  my 
attendance  at  the  interesting  ceremonies  with  which  you  propose  to  testify  your 
high  appreciation  of  the  merits  of  our  illustrious  and  lamented  countryman. 
Very  respectfully, 

Your  obliged  and  humble  servant, 

WASHINGTON  IRVING. 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  399 


(From  FITZ-GREENB  HALLECK,  ESQ.) 

GUILFORD,  CONNECTICUT,  July  18,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — I  deeply  regret  that  your  letter,  inviting  me  to  be  present  on  the 
5th  June  ultimo,  at  the  ceremonies,  under  your  auspices,  in  remembrance  of  the 
late  Dr.  Kane,  did  not  reach  me  in  time  to  enable  me  to  avail  myself  of  its  cour 
tesy  and  to  unite  with  you  in  doing  public  homage  to  the  memory  of  a  good  and 
gallant  brother  of  the  brotherhood  you  represent,  whose  life  was  an  honor  to  that 
Brotherhood  and  to  humanity,  and  whose  heroism  of  head  and  heart  and  hand 
was  worthy  of  all  homage. 

With  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  compliment  your  invitation  paid  me,  I 
am,  gentlemen, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


(From  JOSEPH  D.  EVANS,  P.  G.  M.) 

NEW  YORK,  June  5,  1857. 

BRETHREN  : — I  have  the  honor  of  receiving  your  kind  invitation  to  attend  and 
join  in  the  tribute  of  respect  proposed  to  be  paid  to  our  lamented  and  distinguished 
brother,  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane,  by  the  Masonic  Fraternity  of  this  State. 

Although  I  find  it  impossible  to  be  present  this  evening  to  participate  in  the 
ceremonies  of  the  occasion,  I  nevertheless  fully  sympathize  with  you  and  the 
brotherhood  generally  in  our  irreparable  loss. 

Dr.  Kane  not  only  stood  high  in  the  estimation  of  his  countrymen  and  with 
the  world  at  large,  but,  by  the  noble  traits  of  his  social  and  moral  character,  won 
the  affection  and  respect  of  his  Masonic  brethren. 

It  is  due  to  his  memory  that  the  F  ^ernity  generally  should  do  honor  to  so 
estimable  a  gentleman  and  so  true  and  warm-hearted  a  Mason. 

With  the  highest  respect,  I  remain,  dear  brethren, 
Yours:  *ruiy  and  fraternally, 

JOSEPH  D.  EVANS. 


(From  R.  L.  SCHOONMAKER,  Grand  Chaplain.) 

GRAND  LODGE  ROOM,  NEW  YORK,  June  4,  1857. 

WORSHIPFUL  BROTHERS  : — I  have  received  your  kind  communication  of  yester 
day,  inviting  me  to  be  present  and  omciate  on  the  occasion  of  the  funeral  obsequies 
to  be  observed  in  memory  of  our  beloved  and  deceased  brother,  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane, 
in  the  church  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chapin,  of  this  city.  It  will  afford  me  high  satis 
faction  to  be  present  with  you  on  that  occasion,  so  deeply  interesting  to  us  as 
American  citizens,  but  especially  as  members  of  the  great  Masonic  Fraternity. 
It  is  well  thus  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  one  who  has  so  deservedly  gained  the 
respect  and  admiration  of  the  world  for  his  distinguished  scientific  attainments, 
for  his  indomitable  energy  and  perseverance  in  the  prosecution  of  those  high 


400  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


purposes  upon  which  his  heart  was  fixed,  for  his  sterling  and  excellent  qualities 
as  a  man,  and  his  warm  devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  our  beloved  and  cherished 
institution. 

May  it  be  our  aim  to  emulate  him  in  all  those  respects,  and  with  him  at  last 
end  our  weary  pilgrimage  here  on  earth  in  a  triumphant  faith  in  God  ! 

•    Truly  and  fraternally,  yours, 

R.  L.   SCHOONMAKER, 

Grand  Chaplain. 


(From  JOHN  D.  WILLARD,  P.  G.  M.) 

NEW  YORK,  June  4,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — Should  it  be  possible  for  me  to  remain  in  town,  it  will  afford  me 
very  great  satisfaction  to  accept  the  invitation  with  which  I  have  been  honored, 
and  join  in  the  Masonic  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  our  departed 
brother,  Dr.  Elisha  K.  Kane. 

There  are  few  men  of  our  age  who,  in  my  estimation,  are  so  worthy  of  every 
public  and  every  Masonic  honor.  His  whole  life  was  an  exemplification  of  the 
beautiful  tenets  of  our  noble  institution.  The  principles  of  our  Order  took  deep 
root  in  his  heart ;  they  were  entwined  in  all  his  affections,  and  they  brought  forth 
fruit  in  all  his  acts.  How  remarkably  is  this  exhibited,  to  the  eye  of  a  Mason, 
in  his  last  great  contribution  to  the  literature  of  our  country, — his  touching  nar 
rative  of  the  Expedition  that  he  commanded !  How  often,  by  little  remarks  and 
by  the  narration  of  little  incidents,  does  he  show  his  attachment  to  Free  Masonry  ! 
How  ready  was  he  to  peril  life  in  the  discharge  of  duty  and  for  the  relief  of  a 
brother  !  And  how  proud  was  he  to  bear  the  "  Masonic  Banner,"  beside  the  stars 
and  stripes  of  our  glorious  Union,  to  the  unknown  regions  of  the  North,  and 
plant  it,  amid  eternal  ice  and  snows,  where  the  footsteps  of  civilized  man  had 
never  before  trod ! 

But  I  am  saying  more  than  I  intended.     I  meant  simply  to  express  this  senti 
ment,  which  we  all  feel  in  our  hearts  : — that  the  rendering  of  these  public  Masonic 
honors  is  alike  due  to  ourselves  and  to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead. 
Very  respectfully  and  fraternally,  yours, 

JOHN  D.  WILLARD. 


(From  ROB  MORRIS,  Kentucky.) 

LODGETON,  KENTUCKY,  June  5,  1857. 

SIRS  AND  BROTHERS  : — It  is  with  profound  regret  that  I  have  to  express  to  you 
my  inability  to  accept  your  kind  invitation  of  the  1st  instant.  To  j  in  in  a 
tribute  of  respect  to  one  whose  character  I  have  so  much  admired  as  Dr.  Kane's 
were  a  duty  I  should  make  any  reasonable  sacrifice  to  perform, — how  much  more 
to  unite  with  so  distinguished  a  body  of  the  Masonic  Fraternity  as  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  New  York ;  but  other  engagements  render  it  impossible. 

Allow  me  to  say  to  you,  gentlemen  of  the  Committee,  and  through  you  to  the 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  401 


illustrious  body  you  represent,  that  we  Western  and  Southern  Masons  have  fol 
lowed  the  body  of  Brother  Elisha  K.  Kane  from  New  Orleans,  where  it  was  landed, 
to  the  point  which  separates  the  Eastern  from  the  Western  States.  At  every  land 
ing  on  the  great  rivers,  at  every  railway-station  on  our  iron  roads,  crowds  of 
loving  Masons  have  gathered  around  that  body,  weeping  that  one  so  young  should 
have  thus  passed  beyond  us,  triumphing  that  his  departure  was  not  too  soon  for 
his  own  glory.  Thus  we  claim  that,  though  we  cannot  be  with  you  in  person,  we 
will  not  be  absent  in  admiration  and  respect. 

For  myself,  my  admiration  for  the  intrepid  navigator  has  made  his  history  a 
familiar  theme  in  my  household.  My  children  were  taught  to  follow  him  upon 
his  dangerous  track,  and  they  rejoiced  with  him  upon  his  glorious  return.  As  far 
back  as  1853,  I  ventured  to  express  that  admiration  publicly  in  these  poor  words. 
The  prophecy  truly  has  failed ;  but  the  sentiment  is  eternal.  "  Sir  John  Frank 
lin,  whose  protracted  absence  upon  an  expedition  to  the  northern  coasts  of 
America  has  aroused  the  solicitude  of  the  world,  is  a  Free  Mason.  Dr.  E.  K. 
Kane,  the  young  and  enthusiastic  traveller,  whose  recent  departure  in  search  of 
Franklin  has  been  chronicled  throughout  the  land,  is  bound  in  the  same  holy  com 
munion,  and  in  token  thereof  bears  our  symbol  of  the  square  and  compass  upon 
his  foresail.  What  a  meeting  will  it  be,  when,  amidst  Arctic  night  and  desolation, 
these  two  Masons  shall  come  together  and  grasp  the  brotherly  hand  !" 

\ 
"  Midst  Polar  snows  and  solitude, 

Eight  weary  years  the  voyager  lies 

Ice-bound  upon  the  frozen  flood, 
Till  expectation  vanishes. 

Ah  !  many  a  hopeful  tear  is  shed 

For  him  thus  number'd  with  the  dead. 

"  Midst  joys  of  home  and  well-earn'd  fame, 
Young,  healthful,  honor'd,  there  is  one 
Who  pines  to  win  a  nobler  name, 
And  feels  his  glory  but  begun  : 
His  heart  is  with  the  voyager  lost 
Midst  Polar  solitude  and  frost. 

"  Is  there  some  chain  of  sympathy 

Flung  thus  across  the  frozen  seas  ? 
Is  there  some  strange,  mysterious  tie 

That  joins  these  daring  men?  There  is! 
This,  honor'd,  healthful,  free  from  want, 
Is  bound  to  that  in  covenant ! 

"For  though  these  twain  have  never  met, 

To  press  the  hand  or  join  the  heart, 
In  unison  their  spirits  beat, 

Brothers  in  the  Masonic  art ! 
One  in  the  hour  of  joy  and  peace, 
One  in  the  hour  of  deep  distress. 

26 


402  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


'  The  voice  from  off  the  frozen  flood 

Appeals  in  trumpet-tones  for  aid : 
'Tis  heard,  'tis  answer'd :  swift  abroad 

The  flag  is  flung,  the  sail  is  spread, — 
That  flag,  that  sail,  on  which  we  see 
The  emblems  of  Free  Masonry. 

;  Away  on  glorious  errand  now, 

Thou  hero  of  a  sense  of  right ! 
Success  be  on  thy  gallant  prow, 

Thou  greater  than  the  sons  of  might ! 
Thy  flag  the  banner  of  the  Free, 
Oh,  may  it  lead  to  victory  ! 

'  And  by  that  symbol,  best  of  those 

Time-honor' d  on  our  ancient  wall, — 
And  by  the  prayer  that  ceaseless  flows 

Upward  from  every  mystic  hall, — 
And  by  thine  own  stout  heart  and  hand 
Known,  mark'd,  and  loved  in  every  land, — 

Thou  shalt  succeed :  his  drooping  eye 

Shall  catch  thy  banner  broad  and  bright ; 
Those  symbols  he  shall  yet  descry 
And  know  a  brother  in  the  sight. 
Ah  !  noble  pair,  who  happier  then 
Of  those  two  daring,  dauntless  men  ?" 

Very  fraternally,  yours, 

BOB  MORRIS. 


(From  N.  P.  WILLIS.) 

IDLEWILD,  June  4,  1857. 

GENTLEMEN  : — I  received  your  polite  and  honoring  invitation  to-day,  and  am 
exceedingly  sorry  that  it  is  out  of  my  power  to  accept  it.  The  ceremony  is  one 
which  everyway  interests  my  respect  and  sympathies  ;  and  I  rejoice  in  witnessing 
the  tribute  to  such  a  man,  paid  by  so  estimable  and  honorable  a  society. 

With  thanks  for  the  compliment  to  myself  expressed  in  your  valued  invitation, 
I  remain,  gentlemen, 

Yours,  with  highest  respect, 

N.  P.  WILLIS. 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  403 


A  HYMN, 

WRITTEN  BY  BRO.  GEO.  P.  MORRIS,  WAS  THEN  SUNG 
BY  MRS.  SPROSTON,  MISS  GEER,  AND  MESSRS.  TAYLOR  AND  WILLIAMS. 

"Man  dieth  and  wasteth  away, 

And  where  is  he  ?"     Hark !  from  the  skies 
I  hear  a  voice  answer  and  say, 

"  The1  spirit  of  man  never  dies  : 
His  body,  which  came  from  the  earth, 

Must  mingle  again  with  the  sod  ; 
But  his  soul,  which  in  heaven  had  birth, 

Returns  to  the  bosom  of  God." 

The  sky  will  be  burnt  as  a  scroll, 

The  earth,  wrapt  in  flames,  will  expire  ; 
But,  freed  from  all  shackles,  the  soul 

Will  rise  in  the  midst  of  the  fire. 
Then,  brothers,  mourn  not  for  the  dead, 

Who  rest  from  their  labors,  forgiven  : 
Learn  this,  from  your  Bible,  instead: — 

The  grave  is  the  gateway  to  heaven. 

0  Lord  God  Almighty  !  to  thee 

We  turn  as  our  solace  above ; 
The  waters  may  fail  from  the  sea, 

But  not  from  thy  fountains  of  love. 
Oh,  teach  us  thy  will  to  obey, 

And  sing,  with  one  heart  and  accord, 
"  The  Lord  gives ;  the  Lord  takes  away  ; 

And  praised  be  the  name  of  the  Lord  !" 

The  M.  W.  Grand  Master  then  introduced  the  distinguished  orator, 
Hon.  Brother  E.  W.  Andrews,  who  proceeded,  for  more  than  an  hour, 
to  delineate  the  life  and  portray  the  character  of  our  lamented  Brother 
Kane, — the  audience  testifying  their  deep  interest  in  the  theme  by  the 
most  undivided  and  rapt  attention,  only  broken  by  an  occasional  murmur 
of  suppressed  applause  at  the  impassioned  eloquence  of  the  speaker. 

At  the  close  of  the  eulogy  the  benediction  was  pronounced  by  the 
Grand  Chaplain,  Rt.  W.  and  Rev.  John  Gray,  and  the  audience  dis 
persed  as  the  rich,  full  harmony  of  the  Governmental  Band  resounded 
through  the  arches  above  in  a  sad  requiem  to  the  memory  of  Kane. 


404  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


EULOGY. 

BY  HON.  BROTHER  E.  W.  ANDREWS. 

Most  Worshipful  Grand  Master,  Brethren  of  the  Grand  Lodge,  and  of 
our  Ancient  and  Honorable  Fraternity  generally. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — We  are  assembled  within  these  sacred 
walls  to-night  to  render  our  humble  tribute  of  affection  and  honor  to  the 
memory  of  our  lamented  brother,  Dr.  Kane.  Rarely  has  a  death  occurred 
which  has  touched  with  so  deep  and  universal  a  sorrow  the  heart  of  man. 
Cut  down  in  the  morning  of  his  active  life,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  career 
which  had  already  given  him  place  among  the  most  beloved  and  honored 
of  men,  and  which  was  rich,  almost  beyond  parallel,  in  its  promise  for 
the  future,  his  untimely  fall  has  called  forth  the  strongest  and  tenderest 
expressions  of  grief  throughout  the  civilized  world. 

Science  mourns  the  loss  of  one  of  her  most  earnest  and  successful 
votaries ;  Philanthropy  weeps  the  death  of  one  who  was  ever  eager  to 
obey  her  heavenly  behests ;  and  Religion,  sad  at  the  necessary  sacrifice 
of  such  a  life,  but  joyful  at  the  signal  triumph  of  her  own  divine  power 
in  his  peaceful  death,  stands  by  his  tornb  pointing  to  the  skies. 

And,  brethren,  our  own  venerable  Order,  whose  mystic  tie  spans  the 
earth,  binding  in  sweet  and  sacred  unison  thousands  of  hearts  in  every 
clime, — our  own  venerable  Order,  ever  the  true  friend  and  ally  of  Science, 
Philanthropy,  and  Religion, — everywhere  bow  their  heads  in  grief,  lament 
ing  the  early  fall  of  a  brother  whose  life,  already  illustrious  by  its  beau 
tiful  harmony  with  our  pure  and  exalted  principles,  promised  to  give 
them  in  the  future  even  a  brighter  illustration,  a  more  commanding 
power. 

Under  this  impulse  of  grief,  we  meet  in  "  a  Lodge  of  Sorrow"  to 
night.  We  meet  to  spend  this  hour  in  the  calm  though  mournful  con 
templation  of  a  history  crowded  during  its  brief  continuance  with  the 
most  interesting  events,  marked  by  the  noblest  deeds,  adorned  by  the 
purest  virtues.  We  meet  not  to  praise  the  dead  :  our  praise  could  add 
not  the  faintest  ray  to  the  brightness  that  encircles  his  memory;  we 
meet  rather  to  study  a  life  which  we  may  safely  imitate, — a  character 
formed  to  give  higher  elevation  and  dignity  to  our  nature, — a  death  that 
may  teach  us  how  to  die. 

****** 

[For  want  of  space,  a  portion  of  this  beautiful  eulogy  is  necessarily 
omitted  :  the  extracts  which  are  here  given  will,  we  fear,  scarcely  do 
justice  to  the  distinguished  orator. — Publishers, .] 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  405 


A  few  days  before  the  sailing  of  the  Expedition,  the  fact  was 
announced  to  Arcana  Lodge,  of  this  city,  that  Dr.  Kane  was  a  member 
of  the  Masonic  Fraternity.  This  announcement  produced  a  deep  sen 
sation  among  the  members,  and  resolutions  expressive  of  their  high 
admiration  of  his  character,  and  their  profound  sympathy  with  his 
generous  self-sacrificing  plans  and  labors  for  the  rescue  of  a  lost  brother, 
were  unanimously  adopted  and  transmitted  to  him  in  Philadelphia.  He 
returned  the  following  reply : — 

PHILADELPHIA,  May  12,  1853. 

DEAR  SIB  AND  BROTHER  : — I  have  received  your  eloquent  letter  enclosing  the 
resolutions  of  the  Free  and  Accepted  Masons  of  Arcana  Lodge.  These  resolu 
tions,  expressive  of  the  sympathy  of  our  brethren  with  the  object  of  the  expedi 
tion  under  my  command,  are  to  me  especially  pleasing.  I  shall  communicate 
them  formally  to  the.  officers  and  men,  as  an  indication  of  valued  sympathy  at 
home,  and  a  useful  stimulus  in  the  search  after  our  lost  brother,  Sir  John  Franklin. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Faithfully,  your  friend  and  brother, 

E.  K.  KANE. 
To  SIDNEY  KOPMAN,  Sec'y  Arcana  Lodge. 

On  the  evening  of  the  30th  of  May,  1853,  being  the  night  previous 
to  his  sailing,  the  members  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  New  York,  and  a 
large  number  of  the  personal  friends  of  Dr.  Kane,  assembled  in  this 
city  to  testify  their  high  appreciation  of  his  character,  and  to  express 
their  deep  sympathy  with  his  heroic  purpose  of  Christian  philanthropy 
in  again  venturing  forth  amidst  the  perils  of  an  Arctic  voyage.  Judge 
Kane,  the  father  of  Dr.  Kane,  Henry  Grinnell,  and  other  distinguished 
gentlemen,  were  present.  Dr.  Kane  was  seated,  during  the  evening,  by 
the  side  of  the  M.  W.  Grand  Master ;  Masonic  exercises  of  an  appro 
priate  and  interesting  character  were  performed.  Among  these  was  an 
address  to  Dr.  Kane  by  the  Deputy  Grand  Master,  embodying,  in  the 
most  eloquent  and  touching  language,  the  sentiments  which  the  body 
entertained  toward  their  distinguished  guest.  To  this  address  Dr.  Kane 
replied  in  the  following  appropriate  and  beautiful  terms  : — 

"  In  behalf  of  myself  and  my  associates  in  the  American  Arctic 
Expedition,  I  thank  you,  sir,  most  cordially,  for  the  tone  and  language 
of  your  very  appropriate  and  feeling  address,  and  the  pleasure  I  have  ex 
perienced  in  hearing  it.  With  regard  to  your  remarks  directly  associ 
ated  with  my  name,  I  should  be  embarrassed  could  I  not  refuse  to  believe 
them  addressed  to  me  in  any  other  capacity  than  that  of  the  representative 


406  MASONIC     OBSEQUIES    OF 


of  a  cause  which  perhaps  may  claim  to  associate  Christian  charity  with 
American  enterprise, — the  attempt  to  save  a  gallant  officer  and  his  fellows 
from  a  dreadful  death,  without  inquiring  whether  he  or  they  and  our 
selves  are  citizens  of  the  same  or  of  another  race,  or  clime,  or  nation. 
Worshipful,  I  have  heard  upon  this  floor  to-night  our  party  characterized 
as  a  Masonic  expedition.  And  is  it  not  this  ?  And  is  its  work  not 
substantial  Masonry?  Are  you,  sir,  or  you,  brothers,  here,  that  are 
gathered  around  me,  are  we  blindly  attached  to  this  or  that  ritual 
of  this  or  that  form  or  order  of  the  Masonic  institution  ?  Say,  is 
it  not  rather  that  we  see  reflected  in  Free  Masonry  the  cause  of  free 
brotherhood  throughout  the  world,  and  that  our  signs  and  our  symbols, 
our  tokens,  legends,  and  pass-words,  are  only  honorable  in  our  eyes,  and 
honored  because  they  are  a  language  in  which  affection  can  securely 
speak  to  sympathy,  and  humanity  safely  join  hands  with  honor  ? 

"  Brethren,  we  are  called  in  our  day,  perhaps,  to  make  Masonry  what  it 
should  be, — not  a  sectarian  society,  to  garb,  or  rank,  or  enroll  men,  to 
separate  them  from  their  fellows,  but  a  bond  to  unite  the  good  and  true 
in  a  common  union  for  the  common  defence  and  welfare  of  all  who  are 
good  and  true  men.  Our  brother  Franklin,  he  was  one  who  ruled  his 
conduct  by  the  compass  and  the  square,  and  the  accents  of  woe  never 
for  him  fell  on  an  unpitying  ear.  It  may  be  he  cannot  hear  your  voice 
to-night,  calling  to  him,  l  Brother,  be  of  good  cheer/  But  there  are 
others  living — other  Franklins  yet  to  live  and  to  be  born — whom  your 
example  and  your  sympathy  will  help  to  encourage  and  excite  to  emulate 
his  example  when  they  too  peril  their  lives  for  the  advantage  and 
advancement  of  their  species.  These  will  not  fall  unnoticed  ;  they  shall 
not  shrink  while  a  brother's  outstretched  hand  can  save  them.  The 
Mason,  the  true  man, — wherever  is  the  Grand  Lodge  that  the  Most  Wor 
shipful  has  built  up  for  our  habitation,  wherever  is  it  that  the  cry  of 
affliction  is  heard, — hastens  to  the  rescue  of  the  widow's  son." 

Such  are  the  sentiments  that  reflect,  in  true  colors,  the  character  of 
Dr.  Kane  as  a  man,  a  Mason,  a  Christian ! 

At  the  close  of  this  address,  a  delegation  from  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
New  Jersey  was  presented  to  Dr.  Kane,  who  communicated  to  him  reso 
lutions  which  had  been  adopted  by  that  body,  expressing  its  warmest 
sympathies  with  the  holy  enterprise  in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  giving 
to  him,  "  as  a  Mason,  on  a  worthy  brother  Mason's  errand,  and  to  his 
officers  and  men,  an  affectionate  God-speed  on  their  voyage/'  To  this 
communication  Dr.  Kane  made  a  brief  but  thrilling  reply,  and  the  meet- 


DR.    ELISHA   KENT   KANE.  407 


ing  soon  after  adjourned.  The  whole  scene  was  one  of  deep  and  tender 
interest, — one  the  impression  of  which  can  never  fade  from  the  hearts 
of  those  who  had  the  privilege  to  witness  it.  As  the  brethren  gathered 
around  the  departing  hero  to  give  him  the  farewell  hand,  many  a  manly 
breast  heaved  with  deep  emotion,  and  many  a  manly  cheek  was  wet  with 
the  tears  of  brotherly  affection.  All  felt  that  it  was,  in  truth,  the  hand  of 
a  brother  they  grasped, — of  a  true  man, — a  faithful  Mason, — a  member  of 
a  family  whose  children  are  bound  together  "by  a  mystic  cord,  whose 
every  thread  is  woven  in  the  loom  of  Love." 

The  next  morning  he  sailed.  His  departure  was  an  event  which, 
as  you  well  know,  excited  a  deep  interest  through  the  nation.  From 
thousands  of  family  altars  and  ten  thousand  silent  hearts  there  went  up 
that  morning  intense  aspirations  to  the  God  of  the  sea  and  the  land, 
invoking  his  watchful  care  over  the  fearless  mariner.  Vast  crowds 
gathered  on  the  Battery  and  on  the  wharves  to  take  a  parting  look  at 
the  adventurous  brig,  her  honored  commander  and  gallant  crew.  The 
waters  of  our  spacious  bay  everywhere  swarmed  with  steamers  and  sailing- 
craft  of  every  description,  bearing  the  flags  and  emblems  of  Masonry, 
and  bidding  God-speed  to  the  calm  but  determined  and  noble  band. 
True,  it  was  no  novelty  to  see  a  vessel  go  forth  from  these  secure  and 
beautiful  waters  to  a  voyage  upon  the  great  deep.  Ships  of  almost 
every  nation  of  the  earth  are  daily  to  be  seen  borne  away,  by  the  breezes 
of  heaven,  from  this  port  to  different  seas  and  the  remotest  climes ;  but 
there  was  not  one  among  the  thousands  who  gazed  that  morning  upon 
the  little  brig  of  one  hundred  and  forty-four  tons,  manned  by  a  crew  of 
only  eighteen  men,  as  she  slowly  moved  down  the  bay,  who  did  not  feel 
that  the  sight  was  noble  and  august ;  there  was  not  one  who  was  not 
conscious  of  unusual  emotions  at  that  hour  and  at  that  sight.  There 
was  moral  sublimity  in  it.  It  was  a  triumph  of  what  is  great  and  pure 
and  Godlike  in  our  nature.  It  was  the  commencement  of  a  voyage,  not 
for  the  gains  of  commerce,  nor  for  the  crimson  glories  of  war,  nor  yet 
for  the  advancement  of  science,  but  the  commencement  of  a  voyage  of 
love, — a  voyage  for  the  rescue  of  a  band  of  strangers  of  a  distant  nation 
from  a  dreary  grave.  It  was  a  beautiful,  an  impressive  recognition  of 
the  worth  of  man  as  man, — a  noble  tribute  offered  to  the  transcendent 
ties  of  our  humanity, — a  deed  of  lofty  charity  for  coming  ages  to  ponder 
upon  and  emulate. 

At  length,  amid  salutes  and  cheers  of  farewell,  they  cast  off  from  the 
steamer,  and  were  soon  out  upon  the  Atlantic,  ploughing  their  way 
toward  the  eternal  winters  of  the  North.  Their  destination  was  to  the 


408  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


highest  penetrable  point  of  Baffin's  Bay,  and  from  thence,  by  means  of 
dog-sledges,  to  attempt  a  search  for  the  missing  expedition  by  following 

the  trend  of  the  coast. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

After  gazing  for  some  time  in  silence  on  the  scene,  [speaking  of  the 
open  Polar  sea,]  and  remembering  that  the  hour  was  not  only  one  of 
triumph  for  his  noble  commander,  but  for  the  Republic  he  represented, 
Mr.  Morton  raised  upon  the  summit  of  the  cliff  where  he  stood  the 
stars  and  stripes, — the  flag  of  our  Union.  This  flag  Dr.  Kane  calls 
"THE  GrRiNNELL  FLAG  OF  THE  ANTARCTIC, — a  well-cherished  little 
relic  which  had  now  followed  me  on  two  Polar  voyages.  This  flag  had 
been  saved  from  the  wreck  of  the  United  States  sloop-of-war  Peacock  when 
she  stranded  off  the  Columbia  River.  It  had  accompanied  Commander 
Wilkes  in  his  far-southern  discovery  of  an  Antarctic  continent.  It  was 
now  its  strange  destiny  to  float  over  the  highest  northern  land,  not  only 
of  America,  but  of  our  globe.  Side  by  side  with  this  flag  were  placed 
our  own  Masonic  emblems  of  the  compass  and  the  square.  Here, 
mingling  their  folds,  they  floated  from  the  black  cliff  over  the  dark, 
rock-shadowed  waters  which  rolled  up  and  broke  in  white  caps  at  its 
base."  By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  I  am  able  to-night  to  unfurl 
that  memorable  little  flag  in  your  presence, — "  a  flag  which,"  in  the 
language  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  in  his  note  accompanying  the  flag  when  he 
sent  it  to  me,  "  has  been  farther  South  and  twice  farther  North  than 
any  other  in  existence."  Here  it  is,  [the  flag  was  here  unfurled  by 
Mr.  A. ;]  and  I  am  authorized  by  its  distinguished  owner  to  say  that 
whoever  will  plant  this  flag  at  any  point  farther  north  than  that  on 
which  Dr.  Kane  planted  it  shall  be  entitled  to  its  possession. 

#  *  *  #  *  * 

I  have  thus  traced  in  its  faintest  outline  the  life  of  our  lamented 
brother.  The  prominent  events  of  his  career  were  of  a  nature  fitted  to 
develop  and  place  in  a  strong  light  the  leading  traits  of  his  character. 
That  these  traits,  as  combined  in  him,  formed  one  of  the  most  remark 
able  men  of  the  age,  is  now  universally  acknowledged, — one  of  the  truest 
and  noblest  whose  name  adorns  the  page  of  American  biography.  The 
unconquerable  energy  of  his  nature  was  one  of  hisjmost  prominent  and 
striking  traits.  This  element  of  power  never  failed  him  :  from  his  early 
childhood  it  stamped  his  career.  Although  small  in  size,  (his  ordinary 
weight  being  about  a  hundred  pounds,)  and  with  an  organization  singu 
larly  delicate  and  refined,  yet  he  exhibited  an  activity,  physical  and 
mental,  a  capacity  for  labor,  a  power  of  endurance,  a  resoluteness  of 


DR.  ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  409 


purpose,  and  an  iron  will,  such  as  the  stoutest  and  strongest,  the  Goliaths 
of  earth,  have  rarely  shown.  When  an  object  was  before  him  to  the 
accomplishment  of  which  duty  pointed,  he  shrank  from  no  labor,  was 
disheartened  by  no  obstacles,  refused  no  sacrifices.  If  for  the  moment 
baffled,  he  seemed  to  rise  from  his  defeat  in  renovated  strength  to  renew 
the  struggle.  Whether  toil-ing  up  the  precipices  of  the  Himalayas,  or 
fighting  his  way  through  the  'ranks  of  the  embattled  hosts  of  Mexico,  or 
contending  amidst  the  wild  war  of  elements  on  a  stormy  Arctic  sea,  or, 
from  his  ice-enchained  little  brig,  going  forth  alone  amid  the  darkness 
and  dreariness  of  a  Polar  night  to  secure,  if  it  may  be,  a  mouthful  of 
food  that  can  minister  to  the  strength  of  one  of  his  dying  crew, — what 
ever  his  purpose,  wherever  the  scene  of  his  efforts, — nothing  seemed  to 
daunt  or  discourage  him :  onward,  straight  onward  to  his  object  he 
directed  his  course,  and,  if  within  the  compass  of  human  power  to  reach 
it,  success  was  the  result.  It  has  been  truly  said,  "  Our  victory  is  in 
its  nobility  somewhat  as  are  our  enemies  in  their  strength."  The  foes 
of  an  Arctic  explorer  are  among  the  most  terrible  that  man  can  encounter; 
and  triumphantly  to  meet  them  demands  a  physical  courage,  a  brave 
endurance,  a  moral  heroism,  higher  and  nobler  than  any  battle-field 
whose  scenes  redden  the  page  of  history.  Justly,  therefore,  to  appre 
ciate  the  mighty  energy  of  his  nature  of  whom  we  speak,  we  must  follow 
him  through  the  fearful  conflicts  to  which  he  was  called  in  that  zone  of 
mystery  and  terror.  We  must  see  how  the  mightiest  powers  of  nature 
were  arrayed  against  him;  how  the  wildest  elements  encompassed  him 
with  fatal  arms  of  death ;  how  the  sea  raged,  and  the  blinding  snow  fell, 
and  the  sun  sank  out  of  sight  for  months,  and  the  mountain-icebergs 
are  seen  in  the  spectral  twilight  approaching  to  crush  his  little  vessel  in 
their  mighty  embrace.  We  must  see  "how  contrivance  was  defeated 
by  accident;  how  foresight  proved  insufficient  to  provide;  how  human 
strength  was  wasted  in  attempts  that  failed ;"  how  bread  was  wanting 
and  fuel  was  not  found ;  how  famine  and  disease  came  with  ghastly 
terrors ;  how  the  strong  man  laid  down  despairingly  and  died ;  and  then 
how  he  rose  up  against  all  this,  and,  asserting  the  supremacy  of  that 
nature  which  God  had  given  him,  triumphed  over  all,  and  bore  back 
the  remnant  of  worn  and  wearied  men  that  was  left  him  to  the  fair 
havens  of  their  home  in  the  South  !  Well  has  it  been  asked,  "  Are  not 
the  Arctic  explorations  a  Christian  Iliad,  and  is  not  our  Achilles  nobler 
than  Thetis' s  son  ?" 

But  this  controlling  element  of  his  nature,  while  it  crowded  his  brief 
career  with  brilliant  achievements  and  noble  results,  yet  shortened  his 


410  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


life.  His  constitution,  never  the  most  vigorous,  yielded  and  finally 
gave  way  under  the  overwhelming  burdens  which  his  insatiate  energy 
imposed  upon  it. 

The  intellect  of  Dr.  Kane  was  of  a  high  order.  Quick  in  perception, 
rapid  both  in  combination  and  analysis,  sound  in  deduction,  and  power 
fully  retentive  of  memory,  he  acquired  with  great  ease,  and  ever  had 
his  acquisitions  at  immediate  disposal.  In  a  high  degree  inquisitive, 
enthusiastic  in  pursuit,  and  favored  as  he  was  with  abundant  means  of 
early  discipline  and  culture,  the  range  of  his  attainments  was  wide 
and  varied,  especially  in  the  boundless  fields  of  physical  science, — his 
favorite  sphere  of  intellectual  effort.  Although  naturally  impulsive,  yet 
he  exhibited  in  his  career  great  prudence  and  calm  self-reliance ;  and, 
when  the  emergency  demanded  new  resources,  his  fertility  of  invention 
was  wonderful.  He  was  capable  of  the  most  intense  mental  concen 
tration.  No  man,  whenever  investigation  required  it,  was  more 
laborious,  patient,  and  unyielding.  The  paper  he  read  before  the 
American  and  Geographical  Statistical  Society,  already  alluded  to, 
affords  a  fine  illustration  of  his  powers  in  this  direction.  His  con 
clusions  in  regard  to  the  existence  of  an  open  Polar  sea,  therein 
embodied,  he  had  worked  out  by  a  chain  of  induction  as  severe  as 
mathematical  demonstration.  He  no  more  proceeded  on  mere  con 
jecture  than  did  the  immortal  discoverer  of  our  hemisphere  when,  in 
the  face  of  a  scoffing  world,  he  asserted  its  existence.  Indeed,  Dr.  Kane 
may  justly  be  styled  the  Columbus  of  the  Arctic.  His  mind  also  was 
of  that  refined  cast  which  rendered  him  alive  to  true  grandeur  and 
beauty,  and  would  have  enabled  him,  had  he  chosen,  to  range  success 
fully  the  flowery  paths  and  tempt  the  untrodden  heights  of  the  literary 
world.  To  nothing  that  unfolded  the  mysterious  purposes  and  illus 
trated  the  exquisite  perfection  of  nature's  handiwork  was  he  ever  indif 
ferent.  Whether  upon  the  ocean  or  the  land,  in  the  torrid  or  the  frigid 
zone, — whether  gazing  in  amazed  delight  upon  the  Arctic  aurora  with  its 
startling  and  beautiful  modifications  of  light  in  swiftly- varying  succession, 
or  penetrating  the  caves  of  his  own  Alleghanies,  and  there  reading  the 
history  of  earth  among  the  hidden  rocks  and  in  the  successive  strata 
of  her  various  formations, — whether  watching  the  silent  growth  of  the 
tiny  flower  that,  under  some  overhanging  cliff  of  eternal  ice,  opens  its 
modest  leaves  to  the  pale  beams  of  a  Polar  sun,  or  measuring  the  heavenly 
bodies  in  their  distant  spheres,  and  with  mathematical  accuracy  marking 
out  the  paths  along  which  they  fly  in  their  impetuous  courses, — whether 
wandering  amidst  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  or  through  the  classic  ruins 


DR.  ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  411 


of  lovely  Greece, — no  object  of  beauty,  no  scene  of  sublimity,  no  illus 
tration  of  excellence,  no  proof  of  virtue,  that  ever  met  his  eye,  failed  to 
minister  pleasure  to  his  soul.  As  we  follow  him  in  his  Arctic  wander 
ings,  surrounded  as  he  often  was  with  horrors  thick  and  dark  enough  to 
overwhelm  an  ordinary  mind,  we  are  astonished  at  the  beautiful, glorious 
thoughts,  invested  often  with  the  loftiest  poetical  imagery,  which  abound 
on  the  pages  of  his  daily  journal.  Listen  to  his  language  on  one  occasion, 
after  he  had  been  pacing  the  deck  of  his  little  brig,  as  she  lay  motion 
less  in  her  icy  chains  and  surrounded  by  the  unbroken  silence  of  her 
mysterious  solitude : — ((  The  intense  beauty  of  the  Arctic  firmament  can 
hardly  be  imagined.  It  looks  close  above  our  heads,  with  its  stars 
magnified  in  glory,  and  the  very  planets  twinkling  so  much  as  to  baffle 
the  observations  of  the  astronomer.  I  have  trodden  the  deck  when  the 
life  of  earth  seemed  suspended, — its  movements,  its  sounds,  its  coloring, 
its  companionships  j  and;  as  I  looked  on  the'  radiant  hemisphere  circling 
above  me,  as  if  rendering  worship  to  the  unseen  Centre  of  Light,  I  have 
ejaculated,  'Lord,  what  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him '!'  And 
then  I  have  thought  of  the  kindly  world  we  had  left,  with  its  revolving 
sunlight  and  shadow,  and  the  other  stars  that  gladden  it  in  their 
changes,  and  the  hearts  that  warmed  to  us  there,  till  I  lost  myself  in 
the  memories  of  those  who  are  not ;  and  they  bore  me  back  to  the  stars 
again/7  Never  have  the  beauties,  the  wonders,  the  terrors  of  that 
mysterious  circle  of  earth's  surface  been  so  fully,  graphically,  and  with 
such  fascinating  power  of  rhetoric  revealed  as  they  are  in  his  "Arctic 
Explorations," — a  work  which,  while  it  will  ever  awaken  the  highest 
admiration  for  its  gifted  author,  will  ever  be  invested  with  a  melancholy 
interest  as  the  last  monument  of  his  genius,  reared  with  his  dying 
strength. 

But  the  moral  qualities  of  Dr.  Kane  constituted  the  governing  power 
and  the  highest  adornment  of  his  nature;  for  they  gave  useful  direction 
to  his  mighty  energy,  harmony  and  true  wisdom  to  the  workings  of  his 
lofty  intellect,  and  brought  his  whole  being  into  unison  with  the  great 
law  of  Love. 

Brethren,  brightly  and  beautifully  were  the  fundamental  principles 
of  our  venerable  Order  displayed  in  the  life  of  our  lamented  brother. 
Never,  perhaps,  were  justice  and  truth  more  perfectly  realized  by 
man.  Every  foot  of  the  wall  which  he  built  in  the  temple  was  in 
the  strictest  conformity  to  the  square  and  the  plummet.  Deception, 
misrepresentation,  unjust  concealment,  falsehood,  oppression,  wrong  in 
every  form,  seemed  his  abhorrence.  A  beautiful  instance  of  this  may 


412  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


be  found  in  his  narrative  of  the  first  United  States  Grinnell  Expedition. 
It  seems  that  to  a  tract  of  land  first  discovered  by  Dr.  Kane,  while  on 
this  Expedition,  lying  to  the  north  of  Wellington  Channel,  Commander 
De  Haven  had  given  the  name  of  Grinnell.  A  year  afterward,  this  land 
appeare^  on  the  English  maps  inscribed  with  the  name  of  "  Prince 
Albert ;"  and  the  map  from  the  hydrographer  of  the  Admiralty  not  only 
inscribes  "  Albert  Land"  on  this  newly-discovered  region,  but  pretends 
to  explain  the  error  of  the  American  claim  by  stating,  in  a  note,  that 
"  Baillie  Hamilton  Island  is  the  Grinnell  Land  of  the  American  squad 
ron."  Dr.  Kane — after  demonstrating  from  the  journals  of  the  English 
navigators  themselves  that  the  Americans  were  the  actual  discoverers 
of  this  region,  and  so  demonstrating  it  that  the  hydrographer  of  the 
English  Admiralty,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Grinnell,  which  I  have  had  the 
pleasure  of  reading,  has  honorably  acknowledged  their  mistake,  and 
given  assurance  that  hereafter  their  maps  will  be  made  to  correspond  with 
the  facts — proceeds  to  say : — 

"  The  controversy  is  perhaps  of  little  moment.  The  time  has  gone  by  when 
the  mere  sighting  of  a  distant  coast  conferred  on  a  navigator  or  his  monarch 
either  ownership  of  the  soil  or  a  right  to  govern  its  people :  even  the  planting  of 
a  flag-staff,  with  armorial  emblazonments  at  the  top  and  a  record-bottle  below  it, 
does  not  insure  nowadays  a  conceded  title.  Yet  the  comity  of  explorers  has 
adopted  the  rule  of  the  more  scientific  observers  of  nature,  and  holds  it  for  law 
everywhere,  that  he  who  first  sees  and  first  announces  shall  also  give  the  name. 
I  should  be  sorry  to  withdraw  from  the  extreme  charts  of  Northern  discovery  any 
memorial,  even  an  indirect  one,  of  that  Lady  Sovereign  whose  noble-spirited 
subjects  we  met  in  Lancaster  Sound."  Mark  now  his  ingenuousness,  his  honesty, 
his  love  of  justice  and  truth.  "  It  was  only  by  accident  that  we  preceded  them,  under 
the  guidance  of  causes  that  can  assert  for  us  little  honor,  since  they  were  beyond  our 
control,  and  we  should  have  been  glad  to  escape  them.  But  we  did  precede  them ; 
and  the  most  northern  land  on  the  meridian  of  94°  West  must  retain,  therefore, 
the  honored  name  which  it  received  from  the  American  commander." 

I  have  said  that  Dr.  Kane  was  a  man  of  justice.  A  British  reviewer 
has,  I  am  aware,  charged  him  with  an  act  of  flagrant  injustice  toward 
Godfrey,  one  of  his  crew.  This  man  had  been  disobedient  and  mutinous 
on  previous  occasions ;  now  he  was  in  the  act  of  openly  and  boldly  setting 
at  defiance  the  authority  of  his  commander,  and  fleeing  from  the  ship. 
Dr.  Kane,  standing  on  the  deck,  raised  his  gun  and  fired  upon  him, — 
doing  him,  however,  no  injury.  Subsequently  Godfrey  returned,  and 
was  restored  to  his  place  among  the  crew.  Now,  any  man  who,  after 
reading  the  account  of  this  matter  as  given  by  Dr.  Kane  and  confirmed 


DR.     ELISHA    KENT    KANE.  413 


by  his  officers  and  men, — after  hearing  the  reasons  which  he  believed 
rendered  it  his  imperative  though  painful  duty  to  adopt  the  course  he 
did,  for  the  maintenance  of  that  discipline  of  the  vessel  which  was  vital 
to  their  safety, — will  charge  him  with  cruelty  or  injustice  in  this  act, 
would  blacken  the  memory  of  Washington  for  signing  the  death-warrant 
of  the  interesting  Andre,  although  he  firmly  believed  that  the  safety  of 
the  army — the  welfare  of  the  struggling  Republic — that  unerring  justice 
— required  it.  No  !  never  was  a  commander  more  just  or  generous  toward 
those  under  his  authority;  and  this  is  the  testimony  of  the  officers  and 
men  who  shared  with  him  the  dangers  and  sufferings  of  the  perilous 
voyage,  and  gathered  around  him,  under  the  poor  shelter  they  had, 
through  those  dismal  and  interminable  winters ;  and  with  quivering  lip, 
heaving  breast,  and  moistened  eye  do  they  speak  of  his  self-devotion, 
self-sacrifice,  his  never-failing  regard  for  the  welfare  of  his  comrades,  in 
that  hazardous  search  for  the  lost. 

Nor  was  he  less  distinguished  by  our  other  great  principle  of  love. 
"  Strong  and  binding  was  this  cement  of  his  edifice, — plastic  and  soft  as 
the  purest  gem  in  its  application,  grasping  and  tenacious  and  abiding 
as  the  sculptor's  adamant  which  it  unites  to  form  the  whole  outward 
aspect  of  his  noble  structure."  Our  brother  fell  a  martyr  to  the  bene 
volence  of  his  nature.  He  died — died  out  of  time — because  he  would 
rescue  others  from  death.  Human  suffering,  wherever  he  encountered 
it,  in  whatever  accents  he  heard  its  moans,  stirred  up  the  deep  fountains 
of  love  within  him.  His  career  was  full  of  the  most  touching  manifesta 
tions  of  this  divine  principle.  Follow  him  through  the  scenes  of  his  two 
Polar  expeditions,  and  the  streams  of  his  kindness  never  ceased  to  flow. 
Yes !  in  an  age  of  predominant  avarice  and  mechanical  routine,  he  has 
set  us  an  example  of  as  chivalrous  self-devotion  and  as  lofty,  magnani 
mous  enterprise  as  ever  illumined  the  tracks  of  the  holiest  champions  in 
the  world's  best  day.  See  him  during  the  long  and  dreary  months  of 
the  second  winter  of  their  imprisonment  in  Rensselaer  Bay,  with  every 
officer  and  man  but  one  prostrate  and  helpless  with  disease.  Day  and 
night  he  gives  himself  no  rest.  With  the  tenderness  and  gentleness 
and  assiduity  of  a  mother's  love  he  seeks  to  heal  their  diseases  and  alle 
viate  their  sufferings  by  his  unceasing  ministries  of  skill  and  compassion. 
Now  we  see  him  with  his  gun,  going  forth  alone  and  toiling  his  way  for 
hours  through  the  snow-drifts  and  over  the  ice-covered  rocks  to  secure 
food  that  will  not  aggravate  the  disease  of  the  sick  and  dying ;  and  now 
we  see  him  seated  by  the  side  of  the  pale  and  desponding,  speaking 
words  of  comfort  and  hope  to  sinking  hearts.  I  know  of  no  record  of 


414  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES    OF 


human  kindness  more  beautiful,  more  touching,  none  which  reveals  a 
spirit  in  closer  sympathy  with  His  "who  went  about  doing  good/'  than 
does  the  record  of  this  portion  of  the  Arctic  life  of  Dr.  Kane. 

Go  with  me  at  another  time  and  visit  that  lonely  brig.  It  is  the 
month  of  March,  1855.  The  hour  is  midnight.  A  fearful  storm  is 
raging.  The  thermometer  is  at  seventy-eight  degrees  below  the  freezing- 
point.  Dr.  Kane  with  a  portion  of  his  crew  are  in  their  moss-lined 
cabin  below,  their  thoughts,  it  may  be,  far  away  with  loved  ones  amid 
the  comforts  of  home.  Suddenly  the  noise  of  footsteps  is  heard  on  the 
deck,  and  the  next  moment  three,  of  a  party  of  eight  who  had  gone 
forth  two  weeks  before  on  an  expedition  of  search  and  survey,  enter  the 
cabin.  Their  looks  are  startling :  trembling  with  weakness,  swollen, 
haggard,  benumbed  with  cold,  and  but  just  able  to  utter  a  few  broken 
words,  their  appearance  tells  of  the  terrible  sufferings  they  have  endured. 
Their  story  is  short  and  frightful.  Weak  and  faint  with  fatigue  and 
hunger,  their  party  were  toiling  their  slow  and  painful  way  back  to  the 
brig,  their  only  home  amidst  the  mighty  desolation  around  them,  when 
they  were  overtaken  by  a  storm  of  fierceness  and  power  unusual  even  in 
that  region  of  tempests.  After  battling  against  the  enraged  elements 
for  hours,  four  of  their  number,  exhausted  and  frozen,  sank  down  on  the 
ice  to  die.  Of  the  remaining  four,  one  remained  with  his  dying  com 
rades;  the  others,  after  many  hours  (how  many  they  knew  not)  of  wan 
dering  and  struggle,  half  delirious,  reached  the  brig.  Where  they  have 
left  their  dying  companions  they  cannot  tell.  But,  notwithstanding  the 
terrors  of  the  night,  and  the  faint  prospect  of  success  in  their  fearful 
search,  and  the  probability  of  their  own  destruction  in  the  apparently 
desperate  attempt,  yet  the  purpose  of  their  leader  is  instantly  formed, 
and  immediate  preparation  for  the  rescue  is  ordered.  Amid  the  dark 
ness  and  howling  tempest,  the  band,  led  by  their  master-spirit  and  com 
mending  themselves  to  the  protection  of  Him  who  rides  on  the  storm, 
start  forth.  Ignorant  how  to  direct  their  course,  yet  they  press  forward. 
Hour  after  hour,  through  the  mighty  snow-drifts,  in  face  of  the  blinding 
tempest,  over  the  frozen  and  lacerating  hummocks,  they  struggle  on. 
Twice  does  the  strength  of  their  gallant  commander  give  way,  and  he 
falls  fainting  upon  the  snow.  At  length,  after  twenty  hours  of  constant 
and  incredible  toil  and  endurance,  and  just  as  they  feel  that  they  must 
yield  and  abandon  their  comrades  to  their  sad  fate,  the  keen  eye  of  the 
Esquimaux  boy,  Hans,  detects  the  faint,  half-filled  track  of  a  sledge  in 
the  snow ;  following  this,  they  soon  perceive  in  the  far  distance  a  little 
signal  fluttering  in  the  wind;  a  nearer  approach  reveals  the  small  tent  of 


DR.    ELISHA    KENT     KANE.  415 


the  lost  party  almost  buried  in  the  snow,  and  from  the  little  flag-staff  on 
the  top  floats  the  ensign  of  the  Republic,  and,  underneath,  the  Masonic 
flag.  Trembling  with  anxiety,  they  approach  the  silent  tent.  Their 
leader,  dreading  to  realize  his  worst  fears,  slowly  works  his  way  through 
the  surrounding  drifts  and  enters  the  tent  amid  the  darkness  and  omi 
nous  silence  that  prevail.  There  the  lost  party  lay,  prostrate  and  help 
less,  on  the  icy  floor.  He  speaks;  his  voice  is  recognised:  it  gives  new 
life  to  their  benumbed  and  torpid  senses,  and,  with  reawakened  hope  and 
revived  courage  and  swelling  hearts,  they  exclaim,  "We  knew  you'd 
come  !  we  knew  you'd  come,  brother  !"  And  why  did  they  "  know  he'd 
come"  ?  Why  were  they  sustained  by  this  assurance  when  the  cold 
arms  of  Death  were  encircling  them  ?  Ah,  they  knew  that  the  divine 
principles  symbolized  by  that  little  Masonic  flag  that  fluttered  over  their 
sinking  heads  were  the  principles  that  ruled  the  heart  and  the  life  of 
their  beloved  and  trusted  leader,  and  that,  under  their  power,  no  dis 
tance,  no  darkness  of  the  night,  no  fierceness  of  the  tempest,  no  terrors 
of  the  cold,  no  obstacles  that  human  strength  and  skill  could  surmount, 
would  prevent  his  flying  to  their  rescue  even  at  the  expense  of  the  last 
pulsation  of  his  great  and  benevolent  heart.  "  We  knew  you'd  come  \" 
Yes,  frozen  men  just  ready  to  die,  he  did  come !  Your  faith  in  your 
noble  brother,  the  true  man,  the  faithful  Mason,  was  no  delusion.  He, 
did  come  !  and  kindly  and  gently  he  bore  you  back  to  your  cabin-home ; 
and,  although  one  of  your  number  fell  a  victim  to  the  stern  power  of 
the  frost-king  of  the  North,  and  his  body  now  lies  entombed  in  sight 
of  that  "  deserted  hulk  bound  in  the  deathful  ice/'  you  live  to  tell  with 
what  constancy,  fidelity,  and  beauty  he  illustrated  the  principle  of  love 
in  his  brief  but  immortal  career. 

Finally.  Dr.  Kane  distinctly  and  constantly  maintained  the  authority 
of  religion,  and  with  reverent  faith  sought  its  guidance  and  consolations. 
"  Our  honored  Society,  brethren,  maintains  this  open  profession,  in 
carrying  ever  before  us  and  in  our  midst,  with  solemn  reverence,  the 
holy  Bible, — an  open  Bible.''  Our  lamented  brother  had  faith  in  God 
and  in  his  revealed  word  when  faith  meant  something  and  cost  much. 
Daily  his  little  band  knelt  around  him  amid  the  Arctic  darkness,  and  he 
led  them  in  prayer  to  the  Eternal  Throne.  He  faithfully  taught  them 
the  great  truth  of  a  Providence  which  presides  over  the  course  of  events. 
He  says,  "  Call  it  fatalism,  as  you  ignorantly  may,  there  is  that  in  the 
story  of  every  eventful  life  which  teaches  the  inefficiency  of  human 
means  and  the  present  control  of  a  Supreme  Agency.  See  how  often 
relief  has  come  at  the  moment  of  extremity,  in  forms  strangely  unsought, 


416  MASONIC    OBSEQUIES. 


almost  at  the  time  unwelcome !  See,  still  more,  how  the  back  has  been 
strengthened  to  its  increasing  burdens,  and  the  heart  cheered  -by  some 
conscious  influence  of  an  unseen  Power !"  Such  was  his  faith  j  and  his 
life  was  in  beautiful  harmony  with  it.  Strong  and  fearless  before  men, 
calm  and  intrepid  amidst  surrounding  perils,  yet  he  humbly  asks  God's 
help,  and  blushes  not  to  declare  his  humble  trust  in  Him.  When  hastily 
escaping  from  his  vessel,  which  is  threatened  with  instant  destruction 
by  the  crushing  ice,  he  grasps  his  "little  home-Bible," — inscribed,  it  may 
be,  with  a  mother's  hand, — as  the  treasure  first  to  be  secured.  When 
about  forsaking  his  little  ice-enchained  ves.se!,  which  had  so  long  been 
his  home  in  that  mighty  desolation,  "  he  gathers  all  hands  around"  and 
lifts  up  their  hearts  to  God.  His  faith  ever  sustained  him.  Guided  by 
its  rules,  his  work,  brethren,  from  the  time  that  he  mounted  the  wall  as 
an  apprentice,  to  the  glorious  day  when,  as  a  wise  master-builder,  he  set 
the  key  of  his  arch  and  brought  forth  the  top-stone  of  the  moral  temple 
he  built,  his  work  was  done  and  was  well  done. 

Then,  translated  to  a  place  of  blessedness  and  dignity  in  that  "  temple 
not  built  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,"  he  still  works,  as  angels 
do,— the  great  God  of  the  Universe  being  the  Grand  Master- Builder. 

Such,  imperfectly,  was  the  life,  and  such  the  character,  of  him  to 
whose  memory  we  have  assembled  to  render  this  humble  tribute  of 
honor.  He  has  gone  to  his  grave,  but  in  the  fulness  of  his  young 
renown.  We  shall  see  him  here  no  more;  but  his  noble  life,  his  thrill 
ing  story,  his  beautiful  example,  his  model  character,  and  his  precious 
memory,  are  our  imperishable  inheritance.  Brethren,  let  us  guard  them 
well  and  emulate  them  as  we  may.  Let  us  enshrine  them  in  the 
deepest  thoughts  of  our  efforts ;  and,  as  he  still  works  on  the  walls  of 
the  temple  we  build,  let  us  be  animated  to  greater  diligence  and  high 
fidelity,  that  we  too  may  enter  in  due  time  the  portals  of  that  Upper 
Temple,  whose  proportions  of  harmony,  beauty,  and  infinite  grandeur 
shall  awaken  our  admiration  and  draw  forth  our  increasing  praises 
through  eternal 


THE   END. 


STEREOTYPED  BY  L.  JOHNSON  &  CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 


THIS   BOOK  IS   DUE  ON   THE   LAST  DATE 
STAMPED   BELOW 


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RECALL 


LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slii>-10m-l,'63(D5068s4)458 


[ 

268510= 

Call  Number: 

G635 
K2 

E5 

Elder,  W. 
Biography  of  Elisha 

rr             i          rr 

er 


E6 


268541 


